Three-way deadlock for Las Vegas lead

LAS VEGAS — Jonas Blixt birdied six of the last seven holes Saturday for a 5-under 66 and a share of the lead with Ryan Moore and Brendon de Jonge in the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

Moore had a bogey-free 65, and de Jonge birdied four of the last five for a 66 to match Blixt at 19-under 194 in the Fall Series opener at TPC Summerlin.

Moore, a former UNLV player who lives in Las Vegas, won the 2009 Wyndham Championship for his lone PGA Tour title. Blixt, from Sweden, and de Jonge, from Zimbabwe, are winless on the tour.

Jimmy Walker and Tim Herron were five strokes back. Walker had a 66, and Herron shot 68.

John Daly, tied for sixth at 10 under after a season-best 63 on Friday, had a 15-over 86 to drop to last among the 72 players who made the cut.

He had a quadruple bogey, a triple bogey, two double bogeys, six bogeys and two birdies in his worst round of the season.

Champions

Pate, Funk top leaderboard: In Cary, N.C., Steve Pate and Fred Funk shot 3-under 69 on Saturday to share the second-round lead at 8 under in the Champions Tour’s SAS Championship.

Funk, the Insperity Championship winner in May for his seventh victory on the 50-and-over tour, birdied four of the last seven holes. He’s eighth in the Schwab Cup standings, 1,130 points behind leader Tom Lehman.

“Well, it wasn’t a very easy round, the first part,” Funk said. “I was really struggling with my whole game and managed to shoot 1 over on the front.

“I kept working on my swing, trying to figure something out. And I really never could figure anything out, and I tried a couple different swing keys.”

After a poor approach shot on 13, Funk said, he changed shot thoughts again.

“And all of a sudden, I started hitting it really close and hitting it really solid,” he said. “I hit it really good on — hit some irons really good.”

Pate is winless on the Champions Tour after winning six times on the PGA Tour. After an admittedly “ugly” second round, Pate said he felt better about Saturday’s 69 than Friday’s 67.

“(Friday) was really easy. I hit everything on line,” Pate said. “(Saturday), I hit nothing on line, there was nothing easy about it, but I only made one bogey, so that was good.

“I mean, that could have easily gone sideways pretty quickly, and it didn’t, so that was nice.”

Jay Don Blake and Andrew Magee were a stroke behind the leaders. They shot 70.

Sixty-five-year-old Larry Nelson had a 66 to match Mark McNulty, Mark O’Meara and Mark Wiebe at 6 under. McNulty had a 68, and O’Meara and Wiebe shot 69.

“It’s just kind of a personal thing, so I guess that’s probably a good thing to focus on,” Nelson said about trying to shoot his age. “The tournament is secondary at that point. Now (Sunday), the tournament might be a little more better or a little bit more of a priority ... than it was today.”

First-round leader Russ Cochran followed his opening 66 with a 73 to finish at 5 under.

European

Grace leads by 4 strokes at Dunhill Links: In St. Andrews, Scotland, Branden Grace shot a 3-under 69 at Carnoustie on Saturday to take a four-stroke lead heading into the final round of the Dunhill Links Championship.

The South African was 20-under overall after a remarkable 60 in the first round at Kingsbarns. Grace led by six shots with just four holes left before a double-bogey 6 on No. 15 when he drove into a fairway bunker.

Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark was second after a 68 at Kingsbarns. He also had a double-bogey 6 on the 17th. Swedes Frederik Andersson Hed (66) and Alexander Noren (65) were tied for third, one shot behind Olesen.

United States Ryder Cup star Dustin Johnson (67) made the 5-under cut for the final round with a shot to spare on the Old Course at St. Andrews. Germany’s Martin Kaymer and Sweden’s Peter Hanson each shot 69 to make the cut.

American businessman Hugh Connerty and Thai professional Thongchai Jaidee lead the Team Championship by five shots at 33 under.

Olympic swimming great Michael Phelps, playing with pro-partner Paul Casey, failed to make the cut. On Friday Phelps holed an astonishing 153-foot putt during the second round of team play.