England’s Hall falters but still shares Texas lead

-10 H Hall (Eng), A Schenk (US); – 9 H English (US); -6 E Grillo (Arg), J Suh (US)
Selected others: -4 S Scheffler (US), A Rai (Eng); -3 J Rose (Eng); -1 L Donald (Eng); +7 R Knox (Sco)
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Two superb putts on the final two holes helped England’s Harry Hall keep a share of the lead at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Texas after a poor third round nearly derailed his title charge.

But back-to-back double bogeys on the sixth and seventh holes meant he slipped back to four over par.

After key putts from around 10 feet on the last two holes, he shares the 10-under lead with American Adam Schenk.

On the 17th, Hall played his approach shot just inside 10 feet and sank the birdie putt to move back to two under for the day at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth.

And on the last, he calmly converted a putt of over 10 feet for par, having missed the green and then played a poor chip shot.

“To be T1 after today is pretty cool, especially after that front nine,” world number 197 Hall said.

“It goes to show how hard the course is, and I did a good job battling it back and getting those two birdies on that back nine.”

The 25-year-old added: “After two double bogeys, I was still in the tournament. It left me with some hope. I managed to bring it back a little bit.”

Schenk is also aiming to win his first PGA title after a three-under-par 67 including back-to-back birdies at the start.

“It was one of those days where right where we were looking was right where I actually hit it,” the 31-year-old said. “It doesn’t happen very often, but it’s nice when it does.”

Fellow American Harris English is one shot back after missing an eight-foot par putt at the18th, having earlier nailed a 40-foot birdie putt on the 16th.

World number one Scottie Scheffler bogeyed three of the last five holes and is six shots back, along with Aaron Rai, the best of the other British contenders.