What a great day of golf at the Waste Management Open at TPC Scottsdale. The day started early with the conclusion of the second round, which was suspended due to darkness on Friday. The cut line moved from the anticipated +1 before Saturday to Even par. Some big names did not make it to rounds 3 and 4 such as: Colin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay, and Tommy Fleetwood.  The unbelievable stat of the second round is the lowest scores that included: 63- Jordan Spieth, 64-Scottie Scheffler. 65- Dylan Frittelli and 66- Jhonattan Vegas. All of these top scores came from Texas Longhorns golfers.

Round 3:

The third round was what golf dreams are made of. It had drama, masterful skill and the roar that could only be heard on # 16 in the desert.  Saturday’s third round had a lot of moving involved other than the top spot held onto to Texas Ex Scottie Scheffler, reigning Waste Management Open Champion, coming off one of the hottest seasons by any golfer in the past 10 years. Sam Burns had the low round of the day with a bogey free 64, moving up 28 spots to T11 at -8. The top of the leader board put on a beautiful display of the high level golf that in my opinion has been missing since the field of golfers that left for LIV Golf. The atmosphere set by the gallery throughout TPC Scottsdale added to the great day. The round also included the return of Jason Day and Rickie Fowler, who have had different issues keeping them from the top of the leaderboards but today both looked to be back in top tier fighting form.

The highlight of the day was the final group’s display on #16. Adam Hadwin was being booed for stepping off his ball to re-assess the shot with his caddy. The crowd was not liking it. Hadwin processed to hit the shot of the day at #16 on the last swing of day on #16 putting the tee shot to 1ft 5in. The crowd erupted and the beers came flying. After about a 5 minute delay for cleanup, John Rahm in true showmanship fashion steps up and drains a slippery left to right breaker from 20+ feet.

Final Round:

The groups have been set and I am looking forward to final round at the WM Phoenix Open. After watching the third round, I feel it will be hard to knock Scheffler out of the top spot. Both Rahm and Schauffle had their chances. Scottie Scheffler stumbled on # 13 having to take a drop from a Medusa Cactus then made bogey but he then went on to birdie two more times to regain a two shot lead going into the final round tomorrow. It is golf though, and anything can happen on a Sunday afternoon. My other possible winners are Rahm who had 3-4 lip burners for birdie, Spieth is playing well enough to steal it but will need to have his putter cooperate. My longshots are Rickie Fowler, Jhonattan Vegas and Sung Jae Im. We have a can’t miss ending to this tournament as a delicious appetizer to the Big Game happening in Glendale, Arizona.