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NASSAU, Bahamas – Collin Morikawa chipped in for eagle and raced away from a 20-man field Saturday in the Hero World Challenge with an 8-under 64, building a five-shot lead and leaving him one round away from reaching No. 1 in the world.
Morikawa would stay at the top of the ranking for only a week based on the two-year rolling formula. Even so, only 24 other players have reached No. 1 since the ranking began in 1986.
The guy who has stayed No. 1 the longest — Tiger Woods — watched much of it unfold from the broadcast booth and he saw a command performance.
Morikawa had the first bogey-free round of the week at Albany Golf Club, only once coming close to a bogey on the back nine as his pursuers couldn’t keep up.
Brooks Koepka fell back with a double-bogey on the par-3 eighth hole and had two birdies the rest of the way. On this day, that allowed him to post a 69 and move into the final group.
Full-field scores from the Hero World Challenge
“Just keep doing what I’m doing, play good and hope for the best,” Koepka said.
Morikawa was at 18-under 198 as he tries to win his second straight start. He is coming off a Sunday rally in Dubai to win the DP World Tour Championship, making him the first American to be the No. 1 player on the European Tour.
Not long after Morikawa finished the opening hole in the final group, a dozen or so spectators lingered behind and headed to the back of Albany’s practice range to watch someone who is not part of the 20-man field: Woods.
He spent another day hitting balls, this time with a driver, fueling speculation that 10 months after his car crash that badly damaged his right leg, he might tee it up in two weeks at the PNC Championship with 12-year-old son Charlie.
Tournament organizers are holding a spot in the field for him.
Woods wasn’t quite ready to commit to that, and a return to the PGA Tour remained just as uncertain as when he spoke to the media earlier in the week.
“I can hit it,” he said in the NBC booth during the…
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Source : yahoo
