NAPLES, Fla. — Fred Couples took 11 holes earlier than making a birdie Saturday after which made birdie on his final two holes for a Three-under 69 and a share of the lead with Robert Karlsson within the Chubb Traditional.
Karlsson, the previous Ryder Cup participant from Sweden, hit his strategy to six toes for eagle on the par-5 ninth gap at Tiburon Golf Membership and almost holed his strategy on the 11th for a tap-in birdie. That carried him to a 66.
They had been at 12-under 132.
One shot behind was the group of Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker (67), Berharnd Langer (68) and Alex Cejka, whose 65 was the low rating of the second spherical on the Black course.
Langer had a 20-foot eagle putt on the par-5 18th that might have tied him for the lead.
Eight gamers had been separated by 4 pictures going into the ultimate spherical of the PGA Tour Champions occasion. That group included Kevin Sutherland, the Charles Schwab Cup chief, who had a 66 and was at Eight-under 136.
“There’s numerous guys up across the lead, so you are going to must put an excellent quantity on the board,” Stricker stated. “The blokes up across the lead, you are going to must play an excellent spherical and possibly shoot 5, 6, 7 underneath and see what that does for you.”
Couples did not miss a fairway and transformed loads of wedges into birdies in his opening 63. This was not a repeat efficiency. He performed the entrance 9 with all pars. He made par on the 10th gap. Couples hit wedge into Four toes on the 11th, and after a bogey on the following gap, hit a towering Eight-iron on the par-Three 13th that rolled inches from the cup.
He made certainly one of solely three birdies on the par-Four 17th, and closed out his spherical with a 6-foot birdie putt on the ultimate gap.
Karlsson is making solely his second PGA Tour Champions begin of the yr, having tied for 30th final month on the Cologuard Traditional. He closed out final yr with 5 prime 10s in his last seven tournaments.
“I am simply having fun with enjoying golf once more,” Karlsson stated. “It has been a very long time since November it looks like once we had form of an excellent streak going. I simply used the final six weeks making an attempt to organize for a protracted season forward, and sort of simply completely satisfied to get going.”