After three days at the Colonial, Adam Schenk and PGA TOUR rookie Harry Hall are tied for the lead at 10-under par. Schenk finished Saturday’s round with a 3-under 67 and a 16-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole.
After the first and second rounds, Hall held a one-shot lead, but he overcame back-to-back double bogeys on the front nine that knocked him out of the lead. After making birdie at the 17th, he chipped from the edge out of an uncomfortable posture with his heels hanging over the lip of a bunker, and his final putt in his round of 72 was a 10-foot par at No. 18.
After his bogey on hole 18, when an 8-foot par attempt rolled just over the cup, Harris English was one stroke farther down at 9-under 201. He had sole ownership of the lead two holes earlier following a 40-foot birdie on the 16th par-3.
The 31-year-old Schenk finished second at the Valspar Championship in mid-March despite not having won any of his previous 170 PGA TOUR events. Since then, he has tied for 31st at the RBC Heritage after missing four cuts.
The No. 1 golfer in the world and last year’s Colonial runner-up, Scottie Scheffler, opened with two consecutive 67s before bogeying three of his final five holes to finish with a 72. At four under, he was one of six players who were tied for tenth.
Sam Burns, the defending champion, shot his second consecutive 70. Last year, Burns overcame a seven-stroke deficit in the final round to defeat Scheffler on the opening playoff hole. After three rounds, he is again seven strokes behind the lead and tied for 16th at 3 under.
Going into the final round at Colonial, there is a shared lead for the first time since 2014. After 54 holes that year, there was a four-way tie, but eventual winner Adam Scott wasn’t a part of that group.
Since Ian Baker-Finch in 1989, Colonial hasn’t had a clear winner from start to finish. Ben Hogan was the only player to win in consecutive years; he did so twice in the first two years of the competition, 1946 and 1947, and again in 1952–1953.
English, who was in the lead after his long birdie at the 16th hole and was in the last group with Hall, missed his first two shots from the rough at the 17th hole and had to settle for a 7-foot par when Hall tied it up with a 10-foot birdie.
Through the middle of the round, Emiliano Grillo, who had a 20-foot eagle putt on the first hole of the day and a subsequent birdie at hole No. 2, shared the lead. The only holes he played below par were those. His final six holes of his round of 72, which put him at 6 under and tied for fourth with Justin Suh (66), featured a double-bogey and two bogeys.
Following 14 birdies and just two bogeys in his previous 41 holes, Hall’s double-bogeys occurred at holes 6 and 7, respectively.
Hall’s approach ball at the 401-yard sixth hole landed behind a temporary concession stand after his tee shot fell into the right rough. His pitch through a narrow gap failed in the rough of the mounded green after many minutes with a rules official, a few drops on a cart, and a few more on a washed-out piece of turf.
When Grillo missed a 6-foot par putt on the next hole, he dropped to the same score and shared the lead rather than holding it outright. That double bogey brought him to 10 under.
At the 7th 420-yard hole, Hall’s approach shot left the green and went out of bounds to the right.
English, who started the day three shots off the lead, struck an 8-foot eagle at hole number seven to go one stroke ahead of Hall and one stroke behind Grillo.
English and Grillo were tied for the lead at 10 under when English made the turn at the 10th 404-yard hole with an 8-foot birdie.
Grillo made a double-bogey at the 13th hole’s 158-yard par-3 after his tee shot wound up in the water, dropping his score to 8 under.
After his approach shot went through the green, English made a bogey while Hall earned a birdie one hole back. As a result, they were both tied for first place with Schenk at 9 under.
Prior to making his 12-foot birdie at hole No. 12, Hall had to make a frantic par on the 626-yard hole No. 11. On the longest hole on the course, he missed his first two shots by an average of 80 yards and ended up in the rough.
