There is a small marathon ahead to determine who is the champion of the WM Phoenix Open. The star match of the third day, with Nick Taylor (-13), Sahith Theegala (-12) and Andrew Novak (-11), will have to play 30 holes this Sunday, twelve corresponding to the third round and the 18 of the last. Of the three, the one who best took the six holes they could barely play on this interrupted moving day was Taylor, who slept as a leader thanks to a partial one under with a coast to coast putt holed on hole 5.
Betting on a winner with the tournament situation we have seems a bit foolish. There are no less than 18 golfers separated only by five strokes. However, the little that could be played of the third round showed that there are plugged-in players, like Harris English (-9), partial five under, Billy Horschel (-8), partial five under, Taylor himself or Jordan Spieth (-10), who has said goodbye to the day with his putter on fire, holing two very good birdie putts on 8 and 9 to place himself three strokes from the lead.
If Spieth manages to putt more or less tuned this Sunday, it will be difficult for him to escape the victory. He is playing with tremendous solidity from the tee, his main Achilles heel, and his short game is still pure gold.
On the opposite side to the hot starts are the rather cold ones… or neither here nor there. There we have to include Scottie Sheffler (-8), Cameron Young (-9) or Justin Thomas (-8), three of the big favourites. They have been somewhat stopped, but the reality is that they are completely involved in the battle. There is a world ahead and the Phoenix Open, in addition, in the style of Qatar Masters, is usually decided with what happens in the last six holes, a stretch that includes the par 5 of 13 and 15, the short par 4 of 17, the always impressive stadium hole of 16 and the tough hole 18, where it is vital to be on the street to avoid getting into trouble. In this last third of the round is where the tournament will be resolved. Until everyone gets there, at least in the third round, no major conclusions can be drawn.
The third round will resume this Sunday from 15.30, Spanish peninsular time and the idea is to play the fourth in a row, without even reordering the starting groups to gain as much time as possible on the clock. The idea is to finish as soon as possible so as not to interfere with the Super Bowl, the most important sporting event in the United States.
