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Ian Finnis grabbed his iPhone, logged on to Twitter and nearly reached the 280-word character limit. The caddie for Tommy Fleetwood, Finnis was watching Sunday’s final round of the Hero World Challenge as his man was home for the week. And so bizarre were the proceedings that he felt compelled to socially share his bewilderment.  

“This last 90 mins of @PGATOUR  , Never seen so many players in bushes/duff chips/play left handed out of dessert/plugged in bunkers/hit in hazards/lost balls an to sum it all 2 players played the wrong tee on 9th !! #Golf,” Finnis wrote. 

He wasn’t alone. After watching a player turn both himself and his club around and hit opposite-handed — on a second-straight hole — the man in the booth for NBC’s broadcast, longtime player and analyst David Feherty, phrased Sunday’s play at the Albany Golf Course this way:

“This is a comedy of errors,” Feherty said.  

“It’s high entertainment, though,” announcer Steve Sands said.  

“Oh, yeah, it’s great TV,” Feherty said. “I love this.”

If golf carnage is your bag, then Sunday was an early Christmas gift. There were the left-handed shots from right-handers. A driver toss from the game’s longest driver. Lost balls and rules officials calls. And players hitting from wrong tees and a player who hit five-straight chips. In the end, Viktor Hovland won, but even he didn’t escape unscathed. The Hero’s final round will no doubt go down as one of the strangest days of professional golf you’ll ever see.    

Noon ET: Jordan Spieth and Henrik Stenson hit — from the wrong tees (and Stenson is spot-on as a comedian!) 

The bizarre began when Jordan Spieth and Henrik Stenson, playing in the first group of the day, played from the wrong tee box, walked about 100 yards, were told of the error and took a two-stroke penalty and rehit. The 9th and 17th tee boxes were flipped on Sunday from their positions from the first three days of the event, and Spieth and Stenson played the 9th from the original spot.

But as unusual as that was, the error also gave us this from Stenson and Spieth:

12:20 p.m.: Bryson DeChambeau hits driver — then throws it 

Bryson DeChambeau, the 36-hole leader at the Hero and golf’s biggest bomber, snap-hooked his drive on the 602-yard, par-5 6th, then tossed the big stick about 30 yards forward. He bogeyed the hole and played the weekend at three-over par. 

“Wow, that is way left, and that hole wanders actually to the right,” announcer Jimmy Roberts said on the Golf Channel broadcast. “Actually threw his driver, we were told. Yep, there it is.” 

“Can we get a distance statistic on that?” analyst Notah Begay said. “I mean, it looked like a pretty good toss — that’s on the next tee up.” 

12:45 p.m. and 1:05 p.m.: Collin Morikawa loses one ball — then a second

Collin Morikawa, who began the day with a five-shot advantage, lost both the lead and two balls on a three-hole stretch on the front nine. On the 498-yard, par-4 4th, he hit his second shot over the green and into bushes, couldn’t find it and ended up playing his provisional. On the 602-yard, par-5 6th, he hooked his mud-covered second shot again into bushes, again couldn’t find it and again played his provisional on his way to his second double bogey over three holes. And his lead was lost.  

“We just said, when’s the last time you saw the leader of a Tour event lose a ball. Could you lose two in three holes?” Feherty said on the NBC broadcast. 

“HIs head has got to be spinning a little bit right now,” analyst John Wood said.  

Notably, on the first lost ball, Wood reported that Morikawa had declared it lost and was going to play his provisional, only for playing partner Brooks Koepka to say he found a ball in the bushes, which forced Morikawa to check whether it was his. 

“That was a strange one,” Wood said on the broadcast. “I didn’t know that. What happened was Collin had declared it lost immediately — he has the right to do that; he does not have to go look for it. Brooks came over and saw a ball in that bush. Once a ball is found, Collin had to identify it. If it was his, he would have had to play it and likely take an unplayable lie. The fact that it wasn’t his, at that point, declare it lost and play his provisional, which is a great place to make a five. A little strange situation — I’ve never seen that one before, but the key was Brooks saw a ball in the bush and as soon as it was identified that it wasn’t his, they moved on.” 

1:45 p.m., 1:50 p.m., and 2:05 p.m.: Patrick Reed hits lefty, Brooks Koepka hits lefty, Patrick Reed hits lefty again 

Over about a 20-minute stretch, Koepka and Patrick Reed, both right-handed players, hit left-handed shots, with Reed even doing it twice — while tied for the lead. 

On the 632-yard, par-5 9th, Reed turned himself and his iron around and punched out from under a bush on his third shot. One group later, Koepka did it, too, albeit on his second shot. 

“We are seeing some shots that you don’t normally,” Feherty said on the broadcast after Koepka’s shot. “I mean, that’s basically you just hit it with the toe of the putter just to force it onto the fairway.” 

“When’s the last time you’ve seen on a Sunday, guys in the two last groups, playing it back-to-back and hitting it left-handed?” Sands said. “It’s crazy.” 

“I remember the last time, and my dad was playing,” Feherty joked.  

“These are not high-handicappers, David,” Sands joked back.

One hole later, Reed hit left again, this time on his third shot after his second nestled up against the trunk of a bush.    

“This is amazing what we are seeing here,” announcer Tom Abbott said.  

2 p.m.: Collin Morikawa is 30 yards away — and hits it 5  

Morikawa, three holes after his second lost ball, was 30 yards from the green, he hit it about 5, and it dropped into a greenside bunker to boot. He bogeyed the 9th and shot a 41 on the front nine.  

“Just out of nowhere,” Feherty said on the broadcast.  

2:35 p.m.: Sam Burns hits not one, not two, not three, not four, but five chips 

Sam Burns, tied for the lead at this point, hit his tee shot left on the drivable, 307-yard, par-4 14th, and it skirted a bunker, kicked off some hard pan and settled in some grass. From there, Burns:

— Chipped over the green; 

— Chipped short of the green with a fairway metal; 

— Chipped on the green with a fairway metal, but not past an upslope, and it fell back to his feet;

— Chipped short of the green with a fairway metal; 

— Chipped just on the fringe with an iron; 

— Dropped a 15-footer for a triple-bogey seven; 

Whew. 

“Terrific seven,” Feherty said on the broadcast. “Not sure I thought I’d be saying that at any stage. Man, what a day.” 

3:30 p.m. and 3:45 p.m.: Viktor Hovland touches sand, and officials take a look 

Rules

Viktor Hovland, now in the lead after a three-hole stretch where he made back-to-back eagles and a birdie, three times flicked away sand on the green while his ball was just off it on the 189-yard, par-3 17th. While that’s legal, the first two moves came on sand that was maybe no more than the width of a tee from being off the green — and officials checked while Hovland putted for the win on the 18th. 

He was eventually cleared. Had Hovland not been, he would have been hit with a two-stroke penalty — and his one-shot victory would turn into a one-shot defeat.  

In a text message to GOLF.com, PGA Tour rules official Gary Young further clarified the ruling, writing: “Sand or loose soil is not a loose impediment in the ‘General Area.’ Only on the putting green.”

3:40 p.m.: Patrick Reed, a waste area and a rules official 

Speaking of sand and rules officials … 

It was at the last Hero, in 2019, where Reed became embroiled in a rules fiasco for moving sand in a waste bunker. So on the 471-yard, par-4 18th, when Reed hit his tee shot into another sandy waste area, and called over a rules official for a drop (an irrigation cap was interfering with his left foot), it was not without at least some interest. 

Notable, too, was, as the three-minute process played out, Hovland stood in the fairway and thought about both the water to his left and his two-stroke lead on the leaderboard. Sands asked Feherty on the broadcast what that wait would be like.  

“Well, as well as Viktor Hovland has played, you know, you just keep your mind in the same place,” Feherty said. “You know, you visualize the shot, try to feel the swing in your mind. It’s only a short iron.” 

“And John, from the caddie perspective, if you’re Shay [Knight, Hovland’s caddie], what are you doing with your man right there in the fairway while Patrick is over there in the sand?” Sands asked. 

“It’s a little frustrating, to be honest with you, because initially it looked like, well, he’s going to go quickly and no problem here, but as you wait and wait and wait, you’re thinking at this point you almost want to wait because you waited this long,” Wood said. “But right away, I would have said hey — I would have asked my guy if he wanted to go.”

4 p.m.: The man in red appears  

Finally, after left-handed shots from right-handers, after a driver toss from golf’s longest driver, after lost balls and rules officials calls, after players hitting from wrong tees and a player hitting five-straight chips, Hovland was presented his trophy — from Tiger Woods, who before this week hadn’t spoken publicly since his car crash, only to do so at the Hero, along with hit balls on the range and wear his customary red shirt on Sunday.   

“Strange day in the park,” Feherty said on the broadcast.  

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Viktor Hovland, his ball just off the 17th green at the Albany Golf Course, twice brushed away sand on the green with his right hand. He picked up another piece of sand on the green and tossed it away. Before he putted for birdie during Sunday’s final round of the Hero World Challenge, he stepped a few feet ahead and threw aside four more pieces. 

Had any of that sand been off the green — and both the brushed pieces and the first tossed-away piece were maybe no more than the width of a tee from being so — Hovland would have been hit with a two-stroke penalty. 

And he wouldn’t be your Hero winner today.

Hovland went on to bogey 17, then, as he was putting on 18 with a two-shot lead, NBC reported that PGA Tour rules officials were in television trucks examining where Hovland had lifted sand from. According to rule 13.1c, “during a round and while play is stopped under Rule 5.7a, a player may take these two actions on the putting green, no matter whether the ball is on or off the putting green: (1) Removal of Sand and Loose Soil. Sand and loose soil on the putting green (but not anywhere else on the course) may be removed without penalty. (2) Repair of Damage. A player may repair damage on the putting green without penalty by taking reasonable actions to restore the putting green as nearly as possible to its original condition.”

Of course, had Hovland been removing sand from off the green, part of the “general area,” it would have been a two-stroke violation of rule 8.1a4. That rule states: “a player must not take any of these actions if they improve the conditions affecting the stroke: Remove or press down sand or loose soil.” Hovland won the tournament by one shot. 

In a text message to GOLF.com, PGA Tour rules official Gary Young further clarified the ruling, writing: “Sand or loose soil is not a loose impediment in the ‘General Area.’ Only on the putting green.”

A few minutes after reporting the incident was being reviewed, NBC reported that Hovland was cleared of any infraction.  

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For starters, Jordan Spieth and Henrik Stenson won’t lose much sleep over their rare rules blunder committed on Sunday at the Hero World Challenge. They started the unofficial tour event in 19th and 20th place — in a 20-player field — and finished in those spots on Sunday afternoon.

Stenson (19th; one over) and Spieth (20th; six over) were the only players over par on the week and the next closest to them was Rory McIlroy, who finished six under. So even with two penalty strokes added onto their score on Sunday, it’s not like Spieth and Stenson were rocketing up the leaderboard. But still; how did they hit from the wrong tee?

After the duo teed off on the 9th hole they were halfway down the fairway when they were met by rules officials who told them of their blunder. The 9th tee markers were actually on the 17th tee on Sunday. Both had to re-tee and were assessed a two-stroke penalty.

“Yeah, I’m still not sure which way we played it, but yeah, we kept our heads down [after] finishing out on hole No. 8 and walked to the 9 tee box that we did on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and put the ball down and hit some beautiful tee shots,” Stenson said. “Then when we went down to the hole, went down to the balls. The rules official said, ‘Did you hit off the right tee box?’ And we’re like, well, yeah, kind of — and then we looked back and we saw that there was another one forward and left. So obviously they switched things around and put 17 on the 9th tee box today and 9 was in a different place, and we didn’t pay attention being first out and just motoring along.”

“I mean, personally, I’ve never experienced that before,” Spieth said.

The TV broadcast said players were warned before the tournament started that those tees might change on Sunday. They also said it was posted in the locker room.

“Well, they said that in the scoring there was a sheet saying that there was a new yardage on No. 17, but there was nothing about No. 9,” Spieth said. “… I actually didn’t think we were going to get penalized because it’s a charity event, but then I realized there’s world ranking involved and all that. I think the frustrating part for us now is that every other group’s going to be — they’re making sure to tell them, but for us they didn’t. It obviously didn’t matter for us, which is fortunate I think for those guys.”

To their credit, Spieth and Stenson were good sports about the penalties. They actually experienced other issues on that tee box, too.

“I teed it up first and it wasn’t my tee, so Michael told me it’s not my tee.” Spieth said. “Then Henrik hit. Then I teed up too far in front [of the markers] and he told me to scoot back. So all in all we were so focused on where we were teeing off.”

“Now you’re really, you just spoiled the whole thing,” Stenson said to Spieth. “Like, look at these guys, they don’t know who’s going to hit. Once they figured out who’s hitting, one guy’s trying to tee up in front and then they both hit from the wrong tee box. It’s like I guess we got what we deserved.”

The penalties also led both players to start thinking about packing their bags.

“My question was if we could just finish 19th and 20th and leave after 9, but that wasn’t an option, either,” Stenson said.

“Yeah, he did,” Spieth said. “He asked them if we could just go to the airport and I said I’m down.”

We think they were joking. We think.

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No one was going to catch Collin Morikawa on Sunday. At least no one was supposed to catch Morikawa, who led the Hero World Challenge by five through 54 holes. But a couple of bad Morikawa swings on the front nine evened the playing field, and the tournament was up for grabs on the back nine. Here’s how it all went down Sunday at Tiger Woods’ tournament.

Who won: Viktor Hovland (six-under 66; 18 under overall)

What it means: It’s not an official PGA Tour tournament and FedEx Cup points aren’t earned (although world ranking points are), but Hovland still won $1 million, got to spend the week in the Bahamas and had Tiger hand him a trophy. Not bad. It’s also Hovland’s second straight victory, as he won the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba in his most recent start early in November.

How it happened: Morikawa, arguably the best player in the world right now, might have been expected to breeze to a victory, but he had to take penalty strokes after wild approaches on 4 and 6 and made double bogey on both. A bogey on 9 led to a five-over 41 on the front side, which dropped him to 13 under and brought a host of other players into the mix. Sam Burns, Patrick Reed and Viktor Hovland were all tied for the lead at 15 under when Morikawa made the turn, and it was an action-packed back nine from there.

Burns was the next player to fall back. He was tied for the lead after 13 but made a triple-bogey 7 after chipping five times on 14.

The 14th was also where Hovland started a magnificent run to take a stranglehold of the tournament. He drove it into the green-side bunker on 14 but holed his shot for eagle. Then, on the next hole, a par-5, he rolled in a long eagle putt for back-to-back eagles. He added another red number on 16, converting a short birdie putt to go five under in a three-hole stretch to get to 20 under and lead by three.

Scheffler rebounded from a triple on the front and shot 30 on the back to set the clubhouse lead at 17 under, but Hovland’s hot streak from 14-16 came in handy. He bogeyed the 17th and 18th but still won by one despite starting the day six off the lead.

Oddest thing to happen, runner-up: Reed had to punch out lefty on two holes in a row and went par-bogey on them.

Oddest thing to happen, champion: Jordan Spieth and Henrik Stenson were both penalized for hitting off the wrong tee on the 9th hole (they actually hit off the 17th tee). Players were told earlier in the week the tees could change for the final round; Spieth and Stenson apparently forgot about the warning. The players were notified of the gaffe as they walked to their tee shots. They were both penalized two strokes.

Best putt to save triple bogey: Burns was tied for the lead when he got to the short par-4 14th. Playing 290 yards, Burns’ tee shot was about 30 yards off the green, and his chip from there came out too hot, slowed up by the pin but then caught the edge of the green and rolled down into a runoff area. Justin Thomas was in a similar spot earlier in the day and chipped in. Burns did not. He hit three straight bump-and-run woods that came up short and rolled back down, and his next chip was a wedge that came to rest on top of the hill on the fringe. He rolled that one in from about 15 feet to save triple bogey before he discarded his ball into the water. “What a terrific 7,” David Feherty said on the broadcast. The disastrous hole dropped Burns three off the lead. He shot 69 and finished T3, three back of Hovland.

Sunday red: Even when Tiger isn’t playing, and when he’s simply just hosting and trying to dodge boredom by hitting shots on the range, he’s still sporting the trademark red.

Up next: The QBE Shootout, an unofficial team event, is next week in Naples, Fla., and the week after that is another unofficial event in the PNC Championship, which many golf fans are still hoping Woods will play with his son, Charlie. The next official PGA Tour event is the Sentry Tournament of Champions on Jan. 6-9, 2022, in Hawaii.

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Sam Burns, tied for the lead on the 14th tee at the Hero World Challenge, hit his tee shot left of the drivable par-4, but it skirted a bunker, kicked off some hard pan and settled in some grass. He had dodged trouble and had a chip for an eagle two. 

“Could have been a lot worse,” analyst John Wood said on the NBC broadcast.  

“Could have been much worse,” analyst David Feherty said. 

And then it was. A lot worse and much worse were strokes two, three, four, five and six. Burns hit five chips (!!!!!), made a putt from just off the green for a triple-bogey seven and walked away three shots out of the lead during Sunday’s final round at the Albany Golf Course. 

After the drive, Burns chipped up a slope, the ball ran past the hole, and it spilled off the other side of the green. Four more chips remained.

Chip two, and stroke three. With a fairway metal, Burns punched it up a slope, it didn’t reach the green and it rolled back to his feet. “David, that’s the risk you run when you put a shot like this on the ground — if it doesn’t get rolling early, it starts to bobble and it takes a lot of the energy out of it,” analyst Notah Begay said on the broadcast. 

Chip three, and stroke four. Again with a fairway metal, Burns again punched his ball up the slope, this time it reached the green, but it was still on the upslope, and it again rolled back to his feet. “Boy, oh, boy, this just gets weirder,” Feherty said. 

Chip four, and stroke five. For the third time with a fairway metal, Burns again punched his ball up the slope, it again didn’t make the green and it again rolled back to his feet. “What a disaster,” Feherty said on the broadcast.  

Chip five, and stroke six. This time, Burns dumps the metal and plays an iron, and his ball just stays on the fringe. From there, incredibly, Burns rolled in the 15-footer for a triple-bogey seven, and he tossed away his ball. 

“Terrific seven,” Feherty said. “Not sure I thought I’d be saying that at any stage. Man, what a day.” 

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Collin Morikawa tried to warn us, we just didn’t listen.

When Morikawa made his way to the press room on Saturday at the Hero World Championship after seizing a five-stroke lead, he spoke with many of the same careful phrases he’s used on several occasions while sitting on leads throughout his career.

“This course, if there’s not a lot of wind, a lot of guys out here can make a lot of birdies early on. I just have to go out and just play the way I have been and be ready by hole one and play all the way through,” he said. “Nothing’s going to be a gimme tomorrow.”

We didn’t believe him, because we’ve seen Morikawa play with a Sunday lead before, and we because we know how comfortable he makes playing with leads seem. And of course, what else was he to say? That he was going to steamroll the competition on Sunday, skewering them with a comfortable display of elite-level ballstriking? That he planned to win by seven strokes, instead of his customary five?

So we didn’t listen to Collin when he told us there was a possibility, however small, that he might not breeze to victory in front of his hero, Tiger Woods, to become the second-fastest player to reach World No. 1 (behind only Tiger).

Well, perhaps we should have listened.

On Sunday at the Hero World Challenge, Morikawa did not breeze to victory. In fact, for the first time in his young career, we saw the slightest inkling of final round nerves. In the span of just seven holes, the 24-year-old watched as his five-stroke lead evaporated, turning instead into a one-stroke deficit and leaving him to spend the remainder of his final round chasing the lead.

It all started on the 5th hole, an innocent 500-yard par-4, where Morikawa’s drive found an awkward sidehill lie. As he stood over his approach shot, his play was clear: hit a cut of any kind, and he’d wind up in manageable range to escape with a bogey at worst. But then the two-time major champ did something uncharacteristic. A rare miss with his irons — the dreaded straight ball — which caromed directly out of play. The result of the shot? A lost ball and a drop from the previous spot.

“That might just be about the worst iron shot Collin Morikawa has ever hit,” Shane Bacon offered on the broadcast.

Morikawa stuck his second shot to three feet, but to no avail. The best he could do was escape with a double-bogey, and with other players charging, his lead was slashed from four strokes to just one.

Disaster struck again on the par-5 7th hole. On Saturday, Morikawa admitted he might “play back” if he felt an uncomfortable shot coming, but he was clearly feeling no such way from the 7th fairway Sunday, grabbing a fairway wood and stalking down a yawning approach into an unguarded green. A birdie would bring his lead back to two, and with trouble nowhere but left, that much seemed likely.

But Morikawa pulled his fairway wood, an ugly yank that nearly went so far left, it stayed inbounds. Instead, it held up, skipping into a bed of shrubs. The whole sequence resulted in another lost ball and another double-bogey. Suddenly, what was once a five-stroke Sunday lead had turned into a one-stroke Sunday deficit.

Morikawa steadied some after the pair of doubles, adding two pars as he headed into the turn. Still, he’ll need an major turnaround (even by his own gaudy standards) to return to the lead. Perhaps the World No. 1 in waiting will have to keep waiting, after all.

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The field at the Hero World Challenge was given a few extra yards, and Jordan Spieth and Henrik Stenson were given a two-stroke penalty. 

During Sunday’s final round, the 9th tee box at the Albany Golf Course was moved up after being flipped with the adjacent 17th box, but Spieth and Stenson, playing in the first pairing of the day, played it as it had been and were hit with a two-stroke penalty. The 20-man field, Golf Channel’s Notah Begay said, were told the switch could be coming. 

“Yeah, it’s an unfortunate situation,” Begay said. 

Earlier in the tournament, the par-5 9th had been playing to its full 632 yards, but Sunday, the tees were moved forward and to the left, where the 17th tee box had been. Hitting to the left of a sign that labeled the hole as the 17th, both Spieth and Stenson teed off for the 9th hole, then were told by rules official Stephen Cox of the infraction and went back and played from the correct tees. 

According to Rule 6.1b, “a player must start each hole by playing a ball from anywhere inside the teeing area under Rule 6.2b. If a player who is starting a hole plays a ball from outside the teeing area (including from a wrong set of tee markers for a different teeing location on the same hole or a different hole): The player gets the general penalty (two penalty strokes) and must correct the mistake by playing a ball from inside the teeing area.” The rule also states that “if the player does not correct the mistake before making a stroke to begin another hole or, for the final hole of the round, before returning his or her scorecard, the player is disqualified.”

Spieth, after his second tee shot, hit his fourth stroke into the water and ended up with a triple-bogey eight. Stenson finished with a seven. 

“It is a two-shot penalty for both players, and it is something that was posted in the locker room and mentioned to the players throughout the week heading into the event so not any excuses here, but sometimes just a little bit of an oversight,” Begay said on the broadcast. 

“The players used to going where they’d go,” announcer Shane Bacon said. “But these tees flipped, and it’s going to be a two-shot penalty for both these players. And I’m assuming the chili is fairly warm right now.” 

“That would be a very fair assumption,” Begay said.

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After three days of Tiger Mania, we’ve reached the final round of play at the 2021 Hero World Challenge at Albany Golf Club in the Bahamas. Below, find everything you need to know about tournament money, including payout information and winner’s share.

Hero World Challenge final round preview

Tiger Woods has found himself in the center of attention this week (naturally), but in fact, it’s Collin Morikawa who sits on the cusp of history. The 24-year-old sits just 18 holes removed from becoming the fourth-youngest player in golf history to reach World No. 1. Morikawa enters Sunday’s final round at the Hero at 18 under and leading by a whopping five strokes — hoping to close out a brush with history with one of the greatest players ever watching from close proximity.

Behind Morikawa sit a host of big names (at the Hero — a limited-field event that grants entry only to the game’s top players — they all are) led by Brooks Koepka (-13) and Patrick Reed (-12). Nothing is quite out of consideration for the pair of former major winners, but chasing down Morikawa would seem to prove difficult, given his track record at protecting late leads.

Below, find complete payout information, including winner’s share, for the Hero World Challenge’s $3.5 million purse; you can catch the action all afternoon Sunday on NBC.

Hero World Challenge payout information, winner’s share

1. $1,000,000

2. $400,000

3. $250,000

4. $175,000

5. $150,000

6. $145,000

7. $140,000

8. $135,000

9. $125,000

10. $120,000

11. $115,000

12. $110,000

13. $109,000

14. $108,000

15. $107,000

16. $106,000

17. $105,000

18. $100,000

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Earlier in the week, Collin Morikawa arrived in the Bahamas. On Tuesday, he became engaged to his longtime girlfriend, Katherine Zhu. On Saturday, he took the 54-hole lead at the Hero World Challenge. On Sunday, he could move to No. 1 in the world. There are good weeks. And then there are the seven or so days Morikawa has had. Here are three things you need to know after Saturday’s third round at the Albany Golf Course in New Providence, Bahamas.

Complete leaderboard here.

Collin Morikawa leads

Morikawa was at his best all week on Saturday. He made six birdies, one eagle and no bogies, shot an eight-under 64 and grabbed a five-shot lead entering Sunday’s final round. 

“I’m dissecting my game in a really good way of just figuring out what I need to do consistently to be a better player and to be in contention a lot more,” Morikawa said. “Chipping, putting has put me in a spot so far through three rounds that I feel great and I’ve just got to keep doing that. I really need to figure out how to play hole 18 though a little bit better.”

Though, in the end, he played the 471-yard, par-4 OK, too. 

After a drive down the fairway, he hit his approach into a right greenside bunker, only to pull off one of the day’s better shots. Farther back in the sand and with only about 10 feet of green between the fringe and the pin, Morikawa dropped it to about two feet, and he parred the hole. 

“Just beautiful,” analyst David Feherty said on NBC. “What a work of art that shot.”

Brooks Koepka is in second 

Five back of Morikawa and in second is Brooks Koepka, who shot a three-under 69. Patrick Reed, Viktor Hovland, Daniel Berger, Sam Burns and Tony Finau are six behind Morikawa. 

“Five back, so I’ve got to do something, so I guess yeah,” Koepka said when asked whether it was important for him to be in the final pairing. “It’s always nice to be in the last group, but still got to play good.”

Bryson DeChambeau stumbles 

Bryson DeChambeau, who entered the day witb a one-shot lead, bogeyed four holes, birdied three and shot a one-over 73. Only Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy, with 75s, were higher on Saturday in the 20-man field. 

The day’s low round belonged to Harris English, who started the day 19th, then shot a nine-under 63, with 10 birdies. 

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The post 2021 Hero World Challenge tee times: Final round pairings for Sunday appeared first on Golf.

The final round of the 2021 Hero World Challenge is slated for Sunday in The Bahamas. You can find complete final round tee times for the tournament at the bottom of this post.

Notable pairings for Hero World Challenge final round

Saturday was the Collin Morikawa show in The Bahamas. The 24-year-old was sizzling in the third round as he fired an eight-under 64 to put a stranglehold on the tournament and carry a five-shot lead heading into Sunday. With a win, Morikawa would overtake Jon Rahm as the No. 1 ranked player in the world.

“I’m going to keep saying it, that I just have to focus on trying to win this week,” Morikawa said earlier in the week. “If it does, I know it’s going to happen.”

Morikawa will be joined in the final grouping by Brooks Koepka. That group will tee off in The Bahamas at 12:04 p.m. ET. The penultimate pairing features Patrick Reed and Viktor Hovland, and they go off at 11:53 a.m.

Check out full tee times below.

2021 Hero World Challenge final round tee times (All times ET)

10:25 a.m. — Henrik Stenson, Jordan Spieth

10:36 a.m. — Abraham Ancer, Rory McIlroy

10:47 a.m. — Justin Thomas, Justin Rose

10:58 a.m. — Xander Schauffele, Webb Simpson

11:09 a.m. — Harris English, Matt Fitzpatrick

11:20 a.m. — Bryson DeChambeau, Tyrrell Hatton

11:31 a.m. — Tony Finau, Scottie Scheffler

11:42 a.m. — Daniel Berger, Sam Burns

11:53 a.m. — Patrick Reed, Viktor Hovland

12:04 p.m. — Collin Morikawa, Brooks Koepka

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