Moving Day at the 2025 Arnold Palmer Invitational saw somegolfers surge to the top of the leaderboard while others clearly drove in reverse. While the final pairing of Shane Lowry and Wyndham Clark struggled with matching 76s, Collin Morikawa put together his best round of the week and matched some of his peers for the second-best round of the day.
The two-time major champion made birdie on his final hole to post a 67 and secure the 54-hole lead as he heads into the final round at 10 under -- one clear of Russell Henley.
Morikawa is now the only player on the PGA Tour to hold a 54-hole lead in 2023, 2024 and 2025. However, a conversion on Sunday would mark his first victory in more than 500 days. It has not been for a lack of effort as Morikawa has notched eight top-five finishes since his last win at the 2023 Zozo Championship.
"I've gone longer [without a win], but honestly, I look back at last year, and it never felt like I had my game to just go out and just play golf," Morikawa said. "I felt like I was always kind of, you show up on Sunday, and not that I was guessing, but you still were fighting something and trying to just make it work. It's hard to win like that. I would say the guys that are winning on a constant basis, they're playing free, and that's how I'm going to go out [Sunday]."
Morikawa and Henley made the most of their Moving Days as firing two of the lowest scores of the afternoon with their dueling 5-under 67s. Only Andrew Novak's 65 in the early stages of the third round was better. Henley was terrific both on and around the greens, while Morikawa kept his poise with his irons.
Hitting 14 of 18 greens in regulation, the 28-year-old gave himself ample scoring opportunities. He took advantage of three of the par 5s with relative ease and tacked birdies from 12 feet on both Nos. 11 and 18 all while dropping just a single shot. Morikawa's lone bogey on the par-3 14th marked his first since the ninth hole in his first round.
For much of the day, he was in lockstep with his playing partner in the penultimate group, Corey Conners, before the Canadian faltered on the last with his second bogey of the afternoon. Still, Conners commands a strong position on the leaderboard at 8 under and will be paired with his international Presidents Cup teammate Jason Day, who went from sweating the cutline after a first-round 76 to sweating contention heading into the final round at 7 under.
1. Collin Morikawa (-10): He has done everything but enter the winner's circle these last two years. Morikawa finds himself with another great chance to win thanks in large part to his tee-to-green presence where he leads the field ranking fifth in strokes gained off the tee, first in strokes gained approach and fourth in strokes gained around the green.
This tournament, though, will likely come down to his putter. He has been much improved on the greens over the course of the last couple seasons, but his final-round shortcomings can be attributed to that club. Morikawa missed a couple 6-footers early in the final round at The Sentry that proved too much to overcome given the scoring bonanza in Maui. In his near misses (mostly to Scottie Scheffler), it was also the putter which held him back. If he connects on those high-leverage putts, he will be able to call himself a seven-time PGA Tour winner.
2. Russell Henley (-9)
3. Corey Conners (-8)
4. Jason Day (-7)
T5. Tony Finau, Michael Kim (-5)
T7. Andrew Novak, Sepp Straka, Shane Lowry (-4)
T10. Rory McIlroy, Aaron Rai, Robert MacIntyre (-3)
After opening with a 76, Day found himself in a tie for 45th and in jeopardy of possibly missing the weekend. A second-round 64 did plenty of the heavy lifting, but his finish late on Saturday could prove to the difference maker should he find his way into the winner's circle. After playing his first 15 holes in even par, the Australian rattled off three straight birdies on Nos. 16-18 to shoot past his counterparts and position himself in the leader's rearview mirror.
"I think it's going to be a lot more difficult day today tomorrow," Day said. "There's going to be 10 to 20-mile-an-hour wind out there. We all know how hard the greens are and how hard the golf course is. So, it's just kind of survive, get close to it on the back side. If I can get close to the back side, who knows what happens? But you just got to try and cut into the lead through the first nine. If I can cut into the lead, get myself on the back side, hopefully finish the way I did today. Then you never know what happens."
Lowry and Clark were not the only players to sign for scores higher than they envisioned on Saturday. Justin Thomas played his first six holes in 2 under and then played his final 12 holes in 4 over for his 74. His playing partner, Keegan Bradley, did not have the luxury of a fast start and signed for a 76 that included not one, not two, but three double bogeys. This proved to be one stroke less than the score shot by Ludvig Åberg, who was 2 under through his first four holes but played Nos. 7-12 in 7 over no thanks to a triple bogey on the par-4 8th.
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The oddsmakers make it a three-horse race, and it is the leader (and favorite) Morikawa who looks the most comfortable. He's been simply sensational from tee to green all week, and that 67 of his felt like the highest score he could have shot on Saturday. I am still holding out a sliver of hope that either Straka or Lowry could play the Joe Highsmith role from a week ago, but that may require both mistake-free play and some spicier than expected weather conditions.
After rattling off four straight birdies, Russell Henley has secured the lead by himself at 9 under. Collin Morikawa makes a bogey on No. 14 while Shane Lowry continues to look lost. He just dumped his approach into the water on No. 13 and looks like he is on his way to carding his second double bogey in the last three holes.
He didn't hit a single good shot on that hole. Lowry hits a loose long iron off the tee on No. 11, lays up, misses the green with his third and then fails to get up-and-down. He was tied for the lead at the turn and now he is three off the pace of Conners and Morikawa. Henley has gotten to 8 under and within one.
Wyndham Clark had a nine that he would like to forget with four bogeys and five pars. Meanwhile, Lowry has steadied the ship with two birdies after two early bogeys to sit at 8 under alongside Corey Conners and Collin Morikawa who just missed a 5-foot bid to grab the lead by himself.
The overnight leaders gets back into a share of the lead with a birdie on the par-5 6th. He stands at 7 under alongside those in the penultimate group — Collin Morikawa and Corey Conners — and two clear of Russell Henley. The par-5 scoring will be massive today as bogeys will be had, but those birdies will need to be converted given the limited scoring opportunities.
Well, the last group is officially in reverse. Lowry and Clark play their first four holes in a combined 4 over and have let just about everyone back into this tournament. Jason Day, Collin Morikawa and Corey Conners have caught Lowry at 6 under. McIlroy, Thomas, Scheffler and a whole lot of big names are within a handful.
The round of the day belongs to Andrew Novak who fired a third-round 65 to shoot up the leaderboard. I have a hard time believing anyone will touch that as the golf course continues to dry up and gets firmer and firmer by the second. Novak is in the clubhouse at 4 under — only two strokes behind Shane Lowry who has opened his final round with back-to-back bogeys.
Shane Lowry was out of position from the start and drops a shot on his opening hole to drop the lead to 7 under. Meanwhile, Wyndham Clark played his second from the first cut way to aggressively into a tucked left pin. That was a sloppy 5 from Clark who is now 5 under alongside four others including Rory McIlroy.
Two of the top players in the game have gotten off to strong starts. Scottie Scheffle rolls in a 9-foot birdie on No. 3 and is followed in by a 7-foot conversion by Ludvig Åberg. They are now 2 under for the tournament and will face a couple par 5s over the next three holes to continue their hot starts.
How about this for the third straight day?! Ludvig Aberg and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler are about to get their Moving Days underway, and fast starts will be required. They begin a touchdown and extra point off the lead and will hope to play their first six holes in 2 or 3 under par to close that gap.
