Bhatia overcomes triple bogey, lies T-30 at Procore Championship

Napa (California), Sep 14 (PTI) Indian-American golfer Akshay Bhatia overcame a disastrous triple bogey on the Par-4 seventh hole to card a 2-under 70 and lie tied 30th in the third round of the Procore Championship here.

Bhatia was tied 37th after the second round while another Indian-American, Sahith Theegala, had a mixed day which included two double bogeys and a close eagle in his 73. He slipped from T-14 to T-46.

Bhatia had six birdies against one bogey and a triple bogey while Theegala had three birdies, an eagle against four bogeys and two double bogeys. He started the day with three bogeys and ended with an eagle on an up-and-down day.

Ben Griffin (70 and 16-under) hung onto a one-shot lead and is chased by World No. 1 amateur Jackson Koivun, who already has a PGA TOUR card locked up when he turns pro, and World No. 1 professional Scottie Scheffler.

Scheffler who had a double bogey shot an 8-under 64 and Koivun shot 68 and is 15-under, one shot behind Griffin.

Griffin made his first bogey of the tournament on the final hole and had to settle for a 2-under 70, narrowing his lead to one shot over Koivun and two shots over Scheffler. Griffin was at 16-under 200.

Scheffler missed only two greens and had only one big blunder, on the 14th. His tee shot drifted into soft, thick rough. He came up just short of the green and then tried to clip a wedge close to a tight pin. But it came out soft and into a bad lie in a deep bunker, he blasted out to 15 feet and took two putts for a double bogey.

Scheffler answered with three birdies on his last four holes, two of them par 5s, the other birdie a 7-iron to 6 feet on the par-3 17th. He rose from T-14 to third.

Koivun did not get off to a great start. He had two bogeys earlier and was starting to slide down the leaderboard when he bounced back with a birdie on the par-3 eighth, and a tough shot out of a fairway bunker to 20 feet for a stress-free shot, important at the time to avoid another setback.

And then he was 5 under on the back nine, including an eagle for the second straight day on the par-5 12th, this one with a 40-foot putt.

He has a chance to become the second amateur in as many years to win on the PGA TOUR, following Nick Dunlap at The American Express last year. PTI Cor AH AH