Tommy Fleetwood avoided the type of blunders made Saturday by Scottie Scheffler and Justin Thomas, never missing a fairway and seizing on the good scoring conditions for a 7-under 63 and a three-shot lead going into the final round of the Travelers Championship.
At stake for Fleetwood, a regular fixture among the top 25 for the past two years, is a chance to add a PGA Tour title to a résumé that includes seven European titles and three Ryder Cup appearances.
The immediate challengers in steamy conditions at TPC River Highlands are New England’s favorite son and Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley (63) and Russell Henley, who had a career-low-tying 61 one day after calling a penalty on himself when he wasn’t entirely sure it was one.
Fleetwood, Bradley and Henley will make up the final group Sunday after the PGA Tour announced that the final round will be played in groups of three with a split tee start following Sunday morning storms in Connecticut.
Missing from that final group are Scheffler and Thomas, both tied for the 36-hole lead with Fleetwood.
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Scheffler had a 29th birthday to forget. Thousands of spectators around the first tee serenaded him. He responded with a triple bogey, the first time he has done that to start a round in his PGA Tour career. The world No. 1 never quite recovered, posting a 72, the fifth time in 55 rounds this year he was over par.
Scheffler was nine shots behind.
Thomas, already a winner at Hilton Head this year, was still in range of Fleetwood when he hit his tee shot onto the railroad tracks left of the par-5 13th, the club slipping out of his hand. And then it got worse. He twice watched chips up a slope to a green that ran away from him come up short and roll back down the hill. He missed a 6-foot putt and took a quadruple-bogey 9.
Thomas shot 73 and was 10 behind.
Without the wind — only extreme heat — the course average was right about 68. The final group of Scheffler and Thomas combined to go 5-over par.
Fleetwood was in such control of his game that he didn’t realize until after the round that he didn’t miss a fairway, key to setting up birdie chances.
He made eagle on the 13th hole for the second day, giving him three eagles for the week. They don’t hand out crystal for that at the Travelers, only red umbrellas. But it allowed Fleetwood to get some separation from Henley and Bradley going into Sunday.
Fleetwood, a 34-year-old from England, was at 16-under 194.
His three-shot lead is his largest advantage after any round of his PGA Tour career. Twenty of 22 golfers to lead by three or more strokes entering the final round over the past two seasons have won the event. If Fleetwood does it, the win will come in his 159th career start.
“I’m on top of a lot of stat lines for people that haven’t won on the PGA Tour, so to always be a No. 1 at something is always nice,” Fleetwood said with a laugh. “Yeah, of course I would love to win on the PGA Tour. I think it’s like an element of your career that everybody wants, and I of course want it.
“I haven’t, this year especially, I don’t feel like I’ve given myself … I’ve given myself a back-end chance a couple of times this year, but I’ve not been in contention. So this is like my first real chance, so I’m really excited about that and looking forward to it.”
Jason Day ran off three straight birdies on the back nine to salvage a 67 and was five shots back. No one else was closer than eight shots of Fleetwood.
Scheffler hasn’t finished outside the top 10 since March. He ended the day with a birdie to be in a tie for eighth, but the start was a shocker.
He drove left into the 5-inch rough and hit wedge into a front bunker with a decent lie. But he caught all ball and sent it over the green, leaving him a tough pitch up the slope and over a mound toward the hole. The first pitch came up short and rolled back down into the rough.
Scheffler hit a flop to 15 feet and two-putted for triple bogey, his first on the tour since the BMW Championship in August.
Bradley, whose name has not vanished from Ryder Cup consideration as a player, won the Travelers two years ago and cleared a major hurdle trying to perform before New England fans, now chanting, “U-S-A! U-S-A!” at him at every turn.
He likes his position of chasing but still knows he needs to play well.
“You’re going to have to shoot something at least in the mid-60s, probably where I am, probably lower,” Bradley said. “But it’s doable out here. When you play a course where you’ve got to make birdies, it brings a different challenge. You can’t have a stretch of 1-over par for seven holes or you lose a million shots.
“So in some aspects it’s difficult just like a hard course would be.”
