There’s more work to do for Norway’s Viktor Hovland and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler in the Travelers Championship.
They ended regulation tied atop the leaderboard and will return Monday for a playoff in Cromwell, Conn.
“I played a lot of great golf this week, so I’m feeling pretty good,” Hovland said after Sunday’s round. “Obviously, I would have liked to have gotten it done in regulation, but to have a chance again tomorrow to win, feeling pretty good about that.”
They finished at 21-under 259 after the fourth round at TPC River Highlands, where darkness became an issue because of an earlier weather delay.
Scheffler shot 2-under-par 68 and Hovland, who was the third-round leader, posted 69.
Hovland nearly won it with his birdie attempt from about 25 feet on the last hole, but the ball settled inches from the cup. Then Scheffler needed to save par with a putt from just inside 9 feet. He fist-pumped emphatically when his ball dropped.
“So close to getting it done on 18, but I’ll take the playoff,” Hovland said.
Scheffler finished the fourth round with five consecutive pars, a few of those coming with clutch putts.
“It’s nice to be able to hole those putts, keep myself in the tournament,” he said. “It’s more fun when you’re making the ones to win, but to keep yourself in it is also nice.”
The playoff is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.
Play was suspended for nearly 90 minutes because of storms Sunday evening, creating a dash to the finish. Golfers played in rain for numerous shots before lightning was detected and play was halted.
Scheffler birdied the par-5 13th hole in the rain to take the lead. Play stopped after his tee shot on the next hole.
“Coming out after the delay, I felt like I hit some good shots,” Scheffler said. “Conditions were different, it was hard to predict how the ball was going to come out of the grass, it was pretty wet out there. Then late it got dark pretty quick.”
Hovland bridged the suspension with three consecutive birdies at Nos. 13-15 to pull even with Scheffler at 21 under.
“For a while there, I wasn’t even in second place, so really happy that I still have a shot,” Hovland said.
Collin Morikawa shot 61 in the final round to finish third at 20 under. He completed his round tied atop the leaderboard, though the final pairing of Hovland and Scheffler still had six holes to finish.
“I told my wife earlier this morning that, ‘Let’s shoot 61 and end the three-week stretch on a good note’ and sometimes the way you manifest things works out,” Morikawa said.
Morikawa began the day nine strokes off the lead but pulled even after a birdie on No. 16.
“When you’re that far behind, you just want to play a good final round,” Morikawa said. “We’ve given ourselves a chance and all we can do is wait.”
Morikawa went 5 under across the front nine as part of his bogey-free round. His late surge included a birdie on No. 18 despite needing to escape a fairway bunker amid the rain.
“The wetness, the hardness of the sand, just played into my favor. I just had to make good contact,” he said. “I flushed it.”
Five golfers were within a shot of the lead as the final group began the back nine.
England’s Matt Fitzpatrick (64) placed fourth at 19 under. Wyndham Clark (65), a week removed from winning the U.S. Open, and Akshay Bhatia (67) shared fifth place at 18 under.
J.J. Spaun (64), England’s Alex Fitzpatrick (64) and Canada’s Corey Conners (63) tied for seventh at 17 under.
After Morikawa, the second-best score of the day was a bogey-free 62 turned in by Denmark’s Nicolai Hojgaard. That allowed him to move to 14 under and tie for 14th place.
–Field Level Media
