Morikawa Charcoal relied heavily on ironplay to fire a 5-under 67 on Saturday. He stands on a 10-under-per leaderboard with 54 holes.
He began three shots behind 36-hole leader Shane Lowry, but the Irish struggled at Bayhill, opening the door for Morikawa and others to move the leaderboard up. Laurie sat at 8 under at a point along the way, but dropped two shots in his first two holes. He bouncing off with a pair of birdies on the sixth and seventh holes, but two double bosies on the 11th and 13th holes found water for each, but for the time being he dropped out of contest. He posted a 4-over 76 and is now sitting on a six-shot behind Morikawa, heading for the final round.
Laurie's performance partner, Wyndham Clark, also had none of the best. The 2023 US Open Champion also signed 76, so Clark screamed out the first two holes of the day and couldn't find his groove that shoved him into the solo lead after Thursday's first round.
However, it is Russell Henry who is hiding one stroke behind Morikawa. He made four straight birdies with holes 10-13 to move the board up. Canada's Corey Connors is also soon, sitting at 8 under after shooting a 3-under 69 on Saturday.
Arnold Palmer Invitational Final Round Tee Time (All Times et):
- 9:15am – Zandershaufele
- 9:25am – Sams Stevens, JT Poston
- 9:35am – Max McGreevy, Eric Cole
- 9:45am – Adam Hadwin, Rudygrigg Åberg
- 9:55am – Brian Herman, Patrick Cantray
- 10:05am – Isaiah Salinda, Sam Burns
- 10:20am – Austin Eckroth, Jackson Kovrun (a)
- 10:30am – Matsuyama Hideki, Denny McCarthy
- 10:40am – Will Zaratoris, JJ Spaun
- 10:50am – Ben Griffin, Chris Kirk
- 11:00am – Patrick Rogers, Lucas Glover
- 11:15 AM – Sungjae IM, Keegan Bradley
- 11:25 AM – Jacob Bridgeman, Adam Scott
- 11:35 AM – Nick Taylor, Max Grietherman
- 11:45am – Tommy Fleetwod, Matt Fitzpatrick
- 11:55 AM – Mackenzie Hughes, Justin Thomas
- 12:10pm – Tom Hoge, Shiwi Kim
- 12:20 PM – Daniel Berger, Bion Hun
- 12:30pm – Justin Rose, Wyndham Clark
- 12:40 PM – Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Scottie Scheffler
- 12:50pm – Robert McIntyre, Rory McIlroy
- 1:05pm – Shane Laurie, Aaron Rye
- 1:15pm – Andrew Novak, Cepstraka
- 1:25pm – Michael Kim, Tony Finau
- 1:35pm – Corey Connors, Jason Day
- 1:45pm – Colin Morikawa, Russell Henry
Jack Mirco is a golf staff writer who plays SB Nation. Follow him with x @jack_milko.
