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For the second week in a row, a 47-year-old Englishman with an affinity for great wines and long irons will try to bring down a 27-year-old who has a driving range in his living room and talks about golf as if it were nuclear physics. It’s the biggest and dumbest sport in the world.
Lee Westwood lifted the roof with a 68 on Saturday to open a two-time lead over Bryson DeChambeau heading into the final round of the 2021 Players’ Championship at TPC Sawgrass. They were also paired as the final duo last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational where DeChambeau crushed Westwood with one blow.
Let’s take a look at how those two played on Saturday and what lies ahead for what could be a wild final on Sunday in the biggest PGA Tour event of the year. Westwood (9/2) is the narrow favorite over DeChambeau (5/2), according to William Hill Sportsbook, but we’ll see who else can catch those two Sunday afternoons.
1. Lee Westwood (-13): Westwood went without a bogey for the second straight day (at TPC Sawgrass!). After opening with nine straight starts, he saved his best for last. With three birdies in his first seven holes of the last nine, Westwood moved up to the 17th par 3 and hit a shot against the backboard beyond the hole. But it never came back down. So he missed the 25-foot birdie instead and doubled his lead over Bryson before turning to the sparse crowd at No.17 and lifting the roof. What a world.
The best thing about this week (and the last) is that it feels like the most surprised and thrilled person about his performance and the show he puts on is Westwood himself. A victory on Sunday would be the greatest of an incredible career. He hopes TPC Sawgrass’s setup is a bookend of what players saw on Thursday. Fast, robust and an average well above par.
2. Bryson DeChambeau (-11): The Big Golfer rolled in a 15-footer on the last hole to save the par which highlighted his best putting day of the week. He’s proving again and again this week that he’s not just the one-ride pony everyone’s guessing. While he’s won the majority of his shots off the tee, this week he’s only won 18% with the big stick. It’s absolutely terrifying that his best performances are coming on the traditionally toughest golf courses, which he hopes like Westwood on Sunday.
T3. Doug Pin, Justin Thomas (-10): TPC Sawgrass almost always produces a massive Moving Day score, and this year’s edition belonged to Justin Thomas. JT started hot with birdies in his first four, and capped his day with perhaps the tournament shot in 16th when he hit a 204-yard shot at 7 inches. He closed 3-4 and had two putts to tie the course record of 63.
“I love Saturdays around this place,” Thomas told Golf Channel after his game. “It’s such a fun class to play because you can do something like that. You can get hot, and if you make the cut you can make it work.”
It’ll be tough to save this 64 on Sunday, although JT is more capable than most and hasn’t tinkered with that score exclusively with a hot putter either. If the rider does cooperate again in Sunday’s final, he certainly has enough firepower to catch up with Bryson and probably Westwood as well if there are any big mistakes in that.
T5. Paul Casey, Jon Rahm, Brian Harman (-9): That line was a combined 13 under on Saturday, although Casey and Rahm were the ones intriguing for a win from behind on Sunday. Casey was barely better than the field average, but Rahm comes with more firepower. It’s not that hard to imagine him posting 66 in deplorable conditions and crushing the leaders. On Saturday he shot 67 and only birdied one of the four par 5. It will be a fun bunny for the leaders.
T8. Chris Kirk, Sergio Garcia, Matthew Fitzpatrick (-8): On the other hand, this trio combined to shoot just 2 under Saturday, and all three were quite disappointing on the easier day of the event. Kirk is second in the event only to Ghim in strokes won from the tee to the green (and both were horrible with the putter). This group is almost certainly too far behind to catch up with either Westwood or DeChambeau – especially with their stamina – and it would take a career round to secure the victory.
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