Cal Golf: Golden Bear Trio Falls Out of Contention at The Players

After flirting among the leaders through the first two days at The Players Championship, the three former Cal golfers playing TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra, Florida won’t be in contention during Sunday’s final round.

Collin Morikawa, who was alone in second place after Thursday and still tied for third at the halfway point, fell back to a tie for 14th place after shooting an even-par 72 on Saturday. He is at minus-6, eight strokes back to new leader Scottie Scheffler.

Max Homa, now ranked a career-best No. 7 in the world, had his best day of the weekend, shooting a 5-under 67. But he has a share of 26th place at minus-5, which leaves him nine strokes off the pace.

Byeong Hun An folded five birdies and three bogeys into a third-round score of 2-under 70 and is part of the same logjam for 26th place with Homa.

Scheffler now has three consecutive rounds of at least 3 under par and he owns a 2-stroke lead over Min Woo Lee in second place and four strokes up on Cam Davis in third.

Scheffler had to play eight holes in the morning just to complete the rain-delayed second round, then included an eagle on the par-5 second hole to trigger his superb third round.

He wlll take the course Sunday with a chance to not only capture the $4.5 million first prize — a record for a PGA Tour event — but also possibly the world’s No. 10 rankings.

"I would much rather win the tournament than get back to No. 1 in the world," Scheffler said. "So that will be my focus going into tomorrow, just going out and having a solid round of golf."

Lee is the younger brother of U.S. Women’s Open champion Minjee Lee, and he barely snuck into this weekend’s field by remaining in the top-50 after the Honda Classic.

"Tomorrow could be the biggest day of my life, but I'm going to go out there and have fun again," Lee said. "It's been the motto for the last three months. ... I'm just out here enjoying my time, and like I said, I just crept into this tournament and making the most of it and soaking it all in.”

Among the three Golden Bears, only Homa was able to finish his round on Friday before rains halted the action early, leaving about half the field needing to play additional holes on Saturday.

Maybe that was a factor in him having the best of the trio, including four birdies and no bogeys on the front nine after making the turn.

Morikawa, ranked 10th in the world, had four birdies and four bogeys on Saturday and his even-par day didn’t allow him to keep pace with others on the court.

An, who played one season at Cal in 2011, finished the second round in the morning, including an eagle on No. 16. He had five birdies and three bogeys over the final 18 holes.

Cover photo of Max Homa by David Yeazell, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo