#108 THIRD & FINAL ROUNDS AMERICAN EXPRESS 2024

#108 THIRD & FINAL ROUNDS AMERICAN EXPRESS 2024

ROUND 3 We will give the standings of the top 20 with 10 from group A, 4 from group B, and 6 from group C.  If the tournament was 3 RDs an amateur would have won. Therefore there will be 2 pages of results Rds 1& 2 and RDs 3& 4.

TOP 50

#2 Sam Burnes-24 After a bogie on the first hole he makes 8 birdies to overtake Thomas.

#3 Justin Thomas-21 Came within 1” of an ace on #13, 6 straight birdies from 12 to 17.

#5 Eric Cole-20 66 8 birdies 5 in a row 11 to 15. 2 bogies.

#5 Adam Hadwin-20 66 He has been in top 5 for first 3 RDs.

#5 Si Wo Kim-20 66 Also in top 5 all 3 RDs.

#5 JT Postin-20  FedX#6 has improved every RD, 67,65,64.

#5 Xander Schauffele-20 63 Only 2 bogies in 3 RDs. but not enough birdies.

#10 Patrick Cantlay-19 Only 2 bogies in all 3 Rds, same as his buddy Schauffele..

#12 Sungjae Im-18 1 eagle 5 birdies, projected #4 to win at 20/1.

#17 Chris Kirk-17 68 Only 1 bogie in Rds 2&3, he has had 3 good tournaments in a row. 

Players from 51 on

#4 Christiaan Bezidenhout-21 65 His best 3 Rds in quite some time.

#12 Michael Kim-18 70 Had the lead through first 7 holes but 2 bogies on back 9.

#12 Ben Griffin-18 64 (age 27 OWGR 95 odds 100/1) 10 birdies, 2 bogies.

#17 Zach Johnson-17 68 bogied 2 of last 6 holes

Newcomers

#1 Nick Dunlap-27 60 He is a 20 year old amateur sophomore at Alabama, 1 eagle, 10 birdies. 

#6 Jimmy Stanger-19 All 3 Rds

#12 Kevin Yu-18 (age 25 OWGR 264 odds 400/1 Taiwan) shoots 66 all 3 RDs 

#12 Alexander Bjork-18 67 All 3 Rds

#14 Chan Kim-17 All 3 RDs

#17 Bronson Burgoon-17 64 (age 36 no PGA wins OWGR 1584 odds 1000/1) 64 up from #34.

CUT -13 Missed Bhatia, Lowry-12, Horschel, Kucher, Tom Kim, Stallings, Hoey-11, Fowler-2

FINAL ROUND Final grouping  Dunlap(1.4/1), Burns(2.3/1), Thomas(3.5/1) 

2nd to last group Christiaan Bezuidenhout(33/1), Eric Cole(35/1), Si Woo Kim(50/1) 

FINAL GROUP 

Dunlap hits clutch 6’ putt on 18th to win.  Now exempt on PGA Tour if he turns pro. Burns implodes with shots In the water on 17 & 18 to finish 6th instead of 1. Thomas strong finish with birdies on 14,16,18, but he was too far behind to win.

N. Dunlap-29 70/259	After a bogie on 7 follows up with birdie on 8 and pars 18 to win	$0
Bezuidenhout-28 65/260	4 birdies on first 7 holes then-3 on last 3 holes to almost tie for 1st	$1.5M
Kevin Yu-27 63/261	8 birdies on first 12 holes, but bogies 18 or tied for 2nd	$666K
X. Schauffele-27 65/261	31 on back 9 with 5 birdies.	$666K
J. Thomas-27 68/261	Not making putts like yesterday	$666K

COMMENTARY Based on this tournament it seems DeChambeau is dead wrong.  Professional golf tournaments have been 4 rounds with a few exceptions at least since the PGA was formed in 2016.  It was nice to see the performance of Zach Johnson and Alex Noran in round 1.  They both made the cut as did many others from groups B & C.   Longshots Bezuidenhout and Yu finish in the top 3.