GOLF
Final round at the 2023 Tour Championship: Round 4 Sunday tee times and pairings
Viktor Hovland and Xander Schauffele top the leaderboard at East Lake (Georgia) as play heads into the final day.
The organization of the Tour Championship can include the name of Viktor Hovland as the winner on its trophy because, barring a historic debacle on the last day, the 25-year-old Norwegian player has what will be the most important title of his career.
Nobody can beat him in recent days: he took the BMW Championship with a stratospheric final round and, now, he has a six stroke lead in the Tour Championship, the last stop of the FedEx Cup playoffs. Just 18 holes separate Hovland as the second Nordic to win the PGA Tour, after Henrik Stenson in 2013. Jon Rahm, fifth with -11, is one of the many who will not be able to do more than applaud the man from Oslo.
Not even the king of East Lake (Georgia), Xander Schauffele, was able to keep up with him. The North American, second with -14, signed 68 shots today to accumulate 27 rounds on the Atlanta course, all of which he has played here, without finishing over par. But it is not enough against an inspired Hovland , touched by a wand. The Norwegian is a machine to hit the irons, a predator from tee to green. A birdie opportunity is left on virtually every hole, and it’s not as forgiving as it used to be. Only a hecatomb of his on Sunday could prevent him from capturing his tenth title as a professional, the sixth on the PGA Tour, the third in 2023, the second in the last seven days and, incidentally, the succulent 18 million dollars in the pot for the winner.
Also fighting for places of honor will be Jon Rahm, who completed his worst lap so far in the Tour Championship this Saturday. The Basque player did not have a good time, starting four shots off the lead but that he gave up his options on the 8th hole after a very left exit that landed in the water. That double bogey and a subsequent bogey at 11 punished a Rahmbo a lot who did not stop trying, and who managed to scratch the birdie at 12 and 14 to minimize damage and close his round in 71 shots, one over par, to a cumulative of -11. He is fifth, tied with Scottie Scheffler and Wyndham Clark. Of course, they are all in a very different dimension from Viktor Hovland.
Sunday tee times - Tour Championship (ET)
10:56 a.m. Emiliano Grillo, Taylor Moore
11:07 a.m. Jordan Spieth, Jason Day
11:18 a.m. Si Woo Kim, Sungjae Im
11:29 a.m. Tony Finau, Tom Kim
11:40 a.m. Rickie Fowler, Nick Taylor
11:56 a.m. Corey Conners, Russell Henley
12:07 p.m. Tyrrell Hatton, Brian Harman
12:18 p.m. Lucas Glover, Sam Burns
12:29 p.m. Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood
12:40 p.m. Sepp Straka, Max Homa
12:56 p.m. Adam Schenk, Rory McIlroy
1:07 p.m. Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay
1:18 p.m. Wyndham Clark, Jon Rahm
1:29 p.m. Keegan Bradley, Collin Morikawa
1:40 p.m. Viktor Hovland, Xander Schauffele