It will be another crowded leaderboard on Sunday in the Korn Ferry Challenge at TPC Sawgrass.
They’re calling it the Korn Ferry Challenge.
It will be a challenge, all right … whoever wins on Sunday at the TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley Course will have earned it against one of the deepest fields in Korn Ferry Tour history.
Wake Forest graduate Will Zalatoris finally emerged on top after nine other players led or shared the lead at some point. He birdied two of his last three holes and with a 65, took a one-shot lead at 10-under-par 200.
James Bramlett, attempting to become only the second African-American to win on the Korn Ferry Tour, shot the day’s low round with a 64 — with a 6-under 29 on the back nine — and is tied for second at 9-under with fellow PGA Tour member Luke List (65), Chase Wright (66) and Lee Hodges (67).
Shad Tuten (67) and Theo Humphrey (67) are tied at 8-under. There are 10 players within three shots of Zalatoris and 15 within four shots.
Scores | Monday qualifier | Camilo Villegas leads after Round 2
After a third round that began with the players who made the cut on 1-under-par number still only five shots off the lead, the field spread out a bit more on Saturday — but not by much.
“It’s anybody’s ballgame,” Zalatoris said. “I’ve got a one-shot advantage, but you don’t even look at it as sitting on a lead. I’ve still got to go get it tomorrow. I’ve shot 10-under the last three days on a pretty tough golf course and I feel like every aspect of my game is clicking. If I win, great, if not, it’s still a learning experience. The ultimate goal is just to get better every day.”
Bramlett may have some added pressure. He will be trying to won the same day that one of his best friends in golf, Harold Varner III, will be contending at the Charles Schwab Challenge at the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. Bramlett, Varner, Cameron Champ and Tiger Woods are the only African-Americans on the PGA Tour.
For a few holes on Saturday, both Bramlett and Varner led their respective tournaments.
“I feel extra inspired this week to play well, especially seeing Harold doing what he is doing,” Bramlett said. “Harold is doing it at Colonial on the biggest stage and to see what he is doing definitely adds a level of inspiration for me. I honestly want to catch him. If he is going to win, I want to win too. I want to get on it.”
Bramlett torched the back nine at the Valley (his front), beginning with a 40-foot birdie putt at No. 10. He dropped two more birdies, at Nos. 13 and 15, then holed a 9-iron from 172 yards out for an eagle-two at the par-four 18th hole.
How hard was that? The 17th is a converted par-5 hole and playing 500 yards. It’s the hardest hole on the course this week, averaging 4.371.
Nowhere close to being done, Bramlett then birdied No. 18 on a 12-foot putt, turned, and made two short birdie putts at Nos. 1 and 3 before he cooled off with two bogeys among his last four holes.
List will join Zalatoris and Bramlett in the final group. List hasn’t played on the Korn Ferry Tour since 2015, when he qualified for the PGA Tour, but wasn’t able to get into Colonial based on his current number at 124th on the FedEx Cup points list.
No matter. List is playing hard and birdied two of his last three holes to get into the last threesome.
“I would love to be at Colonial, but I kind of took it as a positive being here just to get my feet wet again,” he said. “I worked hard the last month of so, so it has been nice to see some good shots and good putts go in.”
[lawrence-related id=778048784,778048648,778048194,778048632]