By DOUG FERGUSON
NAPA (AP) — Ryder Cup rookie Ben Griffin made his first bogey of the tournament on the final hole as his lead narrowed Saturday in the Procore Championship. He had a 2-under 70 and leads by one shot over a pair of players who are No. 1 in the world.
One shot behind was Jackson Koivun, the Auburn junior and No. 1 in the world amateur ranking. Another shot back and far more daunting was the No. 1 player in the world, Scottie Scheffler, closing hard with a 64 that included a double bogey at Silverado Resort and Spa.
Griffin, who started out with a three-shot lead, was doing well to keep his distance until he came up short of the green on the par-5 18th, bladed a chip through the green and took bogey on the second-easiest hole at Silverado.
He was at 16-under 200 and will be in the final group with Koivun, who last week led the Americans to a Walker Cup victory at Cypress Point. Koivun already has done enough in the PGA Tour University system to earn a card when he turns pro.
He will try to become the second amateur in as many years to win on the PGA Tour, after Nick Dunlap won at The American Express in 2024 in La Quinta.
And then there was Scheffler, finding a comfort zone with each day at a Silverado course he had never seen until Tuesday. He missed only two greens, one of them at the 14th when he drove into the rough, came up just short and tried to clip a wedge to a tight pin. It came out soft and didn’t clear a bunker, and he failed to get that up-and-down, taking double bogey.
Scheffler answered with three birdies on his last four holes, two of them par 5s, the other a 7-iron he hit to 6 feet on the par-3 17th.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
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