Cantlay, Fleetwood share lead going into final round of Tour Championship

“I’m having the time of my life out there and I’m playing great and I’ve got to enjoy it while it’s happening,” Fleetwood said. “You never know. Tomorrow might be my time, it might not, but I’ll still have a great time doing it.”

Cantlay and Fleetwood hold a two-shot lead over Georgian Russell Henley, the 36-hole co-leader, who shot 69 and is at 14 under. They stand three strokes clear of Keegan Bradley, who is alone in fourth at 13 under after posting 63, the low round of the day. World No. 1 Scott Scheffler is alone in fifth place at 12 under. Fourteen players are within eight shots.

Sunday’s final round will begin at 11 a.m., with the leaders starting at 1:44 p.m. Television coverage starts at noon on Golf Channel and switches to NBC at 1:30 p.m. for the conclusion of play.

The third round was played under cloudy skies that produced occasional drizzle, but never any hard rain. Players were in and out of umbrellas until the middle of the round when the rain went away for good.

Cantlay has not won since August 2022 and recently began working with putting guru Phil Kenyon, who also coaches Scottie Scheffler. “Just a couple little setup changes, nothing too drastic, and I’ve enjoyed it so far,” he said.

And the putting has gotten easier this week because of Cantlay’s ability to keep the driver in play and be aggressive with approach shots.

“I’m definitely driving the ball straighter this week, which is really important around here,” Cantlay said. “The rough is very penal, so you can be aggressive if you’re playing from the way and I’ve been able to do that for the most part.”

The Tour stiffened up a couple of the par-3s, playing No. 9 at 268 yards and playing the back tee at No. 15 at 220 yards, all of it carry over East Lake. Both rose up to bite Fleetwood at inopportune moments.

He hit his tee shot at No. 9 in the collection area and took a bogey after failing to get up and down from 15 feet. He hit a poor tee shot at No. 15 that never had a chance to make land; Fleetwood turned and walked away the moment he struck it. He wound up with a double bogey.

But Fleetwood regrouped and parred the next two holes and two-putted from par on 18.

“I was really pleased with how I bounced back,” he said. “I still had three holes to play and still 21 holes of the tournament, and I still felt in a very good frame of mind. It’s obviously great when it comes off, like you make a couple of birdies after it, but I still felt pretty good.”

Scheffler, the reigning FedEx Cup champion, got off to a shaky start with bogeys on the first two holes and then spent the rest of the round trying to get his putter dialed in. He will likely be a presence on the final day.

“Felt like another frustrating day,” he said. “I felt like I did some things well. I was just a bit off on my reads most of the day. After the start I had, I did a good job bouncing back and getting back into it.”

After waving the white flag for a couple of days, the golf course struck back. The scoring average was 69.6 for the third round compared to 66.8 for the second and 67.3 for the first round.