Two Tied for Lead Going into Final Round at Colorado Korn Ferry Event

After three days of intense competition at the TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes, a pair of players are tied for the lead at 14-under.

First-round leader Taylor Moore and second round leader Tyson Alexander—each of whom led the other by two strokes at the end of Thursday’s and Friday’s action—fittingly endured two-shot swings on each of the last two holes on Saturday that set the stage for a potentially great Sunday finish.

The two former SEC players went at it Saturday, with Moore, an Arkansas alum, drawing even with Alexander after the former Florida Gator bogeyed the par-4 7th. It marked the third bogey of the round for the 32-year-old Alexander, who’d also had four birdies and no pars until the eighth. Moore carded a bogey-free 3-under 33 on the front nine, while Alexander made the turn at 1-under par.

Knotted with Alexander at 15-under going into the par-4 17th, Moore flew his tee shot into a fairway bunker and then put two into the primary rough. Hitting his fourth from the fairway, he found the green and one-putted for double-bogey.

Up two shots after making a par on No. 17, however, Alexander had his own struggles on the 531-yard par-4 18th. His approaches twice found the rough before he jarred a bogey putt. Meanwhile, Moore bounced back from the double by sticking his 160-yard approach to three feet to birdie what has proven to be TPC Colorado’s toughest hole this week (a 4.277 scoring average).

The two-man battle resulted in the lowest 54-hole total in the three-year-old tournament’s history. Their 14-under 202s are one better than the 13-under 203s carded by Brett Coletta and eventual champion Nelson Ledesma in 2019.

The pair will be joined in the final round tomorrow by 46-year-old Tag Ridings, whose 66 on Saturday vaulted him from 16th to third place. He trails the leaders by an ominous two shots.

View the current leaderboard here.

Other notes from Saturday’s action, courtesy of the Korn Ferry Tour:

• Tyson Alexander entered the final round of his eventual win (his only Korn Ferry Tour victory) at the 2021 Veritex Bank Championship this past April in T7 position and closed with a 7-under 64
• Tag Ridings (3rd / -12), who is currently 138th in the 2020-21 Korn Ferry Tour points standings, sits in his highest 54-hole position since he was solo second at the 2016 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship
• Ridings, 46, won his only PGA TOUR-sanctioned event at the 2002 WNB Golf Classic, a Korn Ferry Tour event in Midland, Texas, where he entered the final round in T3 position
• Ridings’ last top-five finish was a T3 at the 2017 Barbasol Championship on the PGA TOUR, while his last top-five on the Korn Ferry Tour was a solo third at the 2016 Servientrega Championship presented by Efecty
• Taylor Pendrith (T4 / -11) is seeking his first career Korn Ferry Tour victory and sits inside the top five after 54 holes for the fourth time this season; he finished no worse than T3 on the previous three occasions
  • 2020 TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes – T2 after 54 holes, finished T3
  • 2020 TPC San Antonio Challenge at the Canyons – solo third after 54, finished solo second
  • 2020 Wichita Open Benefitting KU Wichita Pediatrics – T2 after 54, finished solo second
• Pendrith has four second-place finishes and a T3 finish this season, but is without a win; his T3 finish came at last July’s TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes
• Adam Svensson (T4 / -11) is positioned inside the top five after 54 holes for the third time this season; he stood T2 at the 2021 MGM Resorts Championship at Paiute this past April (finished T22) and was solo third at the 2021 Evans Scholars Invitational presented by First Midwest Bank this past May (finished solo second)
• Svensson carded a second consecutive 6-under 66, marking the first time since the first two rounds of the 2020 Albertsons Boise Open presented by Chevron he shot back-to-back rounds of 66 or better (he opened with rounds of 65 and 66 there)
• Svensson won the 2021 Club Car Championship at The Landings Club this past March and began the final round four strokes off the lead
• Kevin Yu (T4 / -11), who finished No. 4 in the inaugural PGA TOUR University class, remained in T4 position with a 2-under 70; he has finishes of T20-T5-T25 in his first three Korn Ferry Tour starts
• Austin Smotherman (T17 / -8) made his first hole-in-one in a PGA TOUR-sanctioned tournament with an 8-iron at the par-3 eighth (188 yards Saturday); he said his last hole-in-one was July 23rd, 2020 on No. 8 at Trinity Forest Golf Club, his home course
• Chandler Eaton (T48 / -4) continues to lead the three Monday qualifiers who survived the 36-hole cut; he is making his sixth Korn Ferry Tour start following a standout career at Duke (2016-20)
  • Following his junior season at Duke, Eaton finished T41 at the 2019 Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament’s Final Stage, missing guaranteed starts on the Korn Ferry Tour by a single stroke; he then returned to Duke for his senior season
• The lowest round of the day was a 7-under 65 carded by Pendrith (T4 / -11), James Nicholas(T17 / -8), Stephan Jaeger (T17 / -8), and Luke Guthrie (T17 / -8)
• After three bogey-free rounds were recorded each of the first two days, Guthrie (65) and Nicholas (65) carded Saturday’s only bogey-free rounds
• Weather: Sunny, high of 86 degrees, wind ENE at 8-15 mph (gusts up to 20 mph)
• The combined 2020-21 Korn Ferry Tour schedule will conclude with 25 PGA TOUR cards awarded in August at the 2021 Pinnacle Bank Championship presented by Aetna, with an additional 25 cards awarded at the conclusion of the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Finals