Keegan Bradley, Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay? Just when Tommy Fleetwood looked to have a firm grip on this Tour Championship, Cantlay emerged from the shadows in a bid to become the third member of the US Ryder Cup contingent in the course of this season to deny Fleetwood the win he is long overdue on American soil. It feels poetic that Cantlay was front and centre as Fleetwood and Europe triumphed over the US in Rome two years ago. If it is to be Tommy\u2019s time, he will have to scrap for it. Cantlay might be in his home country but so many of the Atlanta gallery will root for the hugely popular Fleetwood on day four.<\/p>\n
Cantlay birdied four of his last five holes at East Lake to produce a back nine of 31 in an overall 64. Cantlay\u2019s 16 under par topped Fleetwood until the Southport golfer rolled in a birdie putt from 10ft at the 17th. Fleetwood\u2019s 67 meant he is tied at the leaderboard summit with Cantlay, 18 holes from home.<\/p>\n
Fleetwood rattled off four birdies in succession from the 5th to endorse the sense this is finally his American time. East Lake jabbed back at the 15th, where Fleetwood found water from the tee before slipping to a double bogey five. Fleetwood\u2019s response was excellent, courtesy of shots collected at the 16th and 17th before his fairway wood to the last drifted into a greenside bunker. Sixteen under plays 16 under. There is a two-shot gap to Russell Henley in third.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to be in the final group on Sunday or you want to be in contention,\u201d said Fleetwood. \u201cI love the fact that I\u2019m playing so well. I love the fact that I\u2019m getting rewarded for my work by being in this position because we all grind so hard, we all practise so hard, but it\u2019s been so long where you don\u2019t get out of it what you put in. Golf<\/a> just isn\u2019t like that.<\/p>\n \u201cI love that I\u2019m up there again, and it\u2019s just another chance. It\u2019s another opportunity. It\u2019s another day where I get to go out and do what I love and enjoy it and be in contention and just go and hit the golf shots. We\u2019re trying to win a golf tournament and do something very special.\u201d<\/p>\n On the charge: Patrick Cantlay\u2019s round of 64 left him with a share of the lead. Photograph: Erik S Lesser\/EPA<\/p>\n Cantlay has already virtually assured he will be a Ryder Cup captain\u2019s pick on Wednesday but glory here would further justify that position. Bradley\u2019s upcoming Ryder Cup decision is getting harder by the day. The US captain, who must choose whether or not he also wants to play at Bethpage, posted a 63 to leap to 13 under. Strange though it may seem for a qualifying process which lasts two years, Bradley\u2019s final day performance feels hugely significant. Should he win or even come close<\/a> to claiming the Tour Championship, he is surely set to become the first playing captain in the Ryder Cup since Arnold Palmer in 1963.<\/p>\n \u201cI caught myself on the range today thinking about something I wanted to tell the team at Bethpage and it happens to me throughout the round,\u201d Bradley explained. \u201cI see a guy at the leaderboard and I remember who we\u2019re thinking of pairing him with and it\u2019s great that they\u2019re playing good, or I wish they were a little higher, whatever it is. It\u2019s been a wild year. I\u2019m just trying to tackle what\u2019s in front of me, and I think I\u2019ve done a good job of that. This might be my best round of the year, which I\u2019m really proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend\u2019s action<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Like Fleetwood, Rory McIlroy found water at the 15th. The Northern Irishman three putted the last for a bogey, his round of 71 moving him back to six under par. It feels as if McIlroy is marking time until the Ryder Cup. Scheffler can, of course, not be ruled out of this event after a 66 for 12 under in total. Robert MacIntyre\u2019s challenge faded with a 72, leaving him eight shy of the leading duo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keegan Bradley, Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay? Just when Tommy Fleetwood looked to have a firm grip on this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[2826,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-370022","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115084430127278046","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}