
Durant out for Game 1 vs. Lakers with knee inury
Kevin Durant will miss Game 1 against the Lakers due to a knee injury.
Matt Fitzpatrick leads the RBC Heritage after a strong performance, recovering from a tough start to shoot a three-under-par 68. He will compete against World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler in the final round.
Matt Fitzpatrick could argue that the term âmomentumâ is a concoction of sportswriters and broadcasters to overwise explain how an athleteâs brain and body somehow click together in a way that sustains a bit of success.
âIt's funny,â Fitzpatrick was saying on Saturday at the RBC Heritage. âI remember having a conversation with [well-known coach] Phil Kenyon that effectively momentum doesn't actually exist. It's probably psychological, isn't it.â
Whatever âitâ is, the 31-year-old Englishman is experiencing it both this week at Harbour Town and over the last month of the PGA Tour season. Fitzpatrick lost a close battle in the Players Championship, rebounded one week later with a victory in the Valspar, and now heâs the 54-hole leader in a tournament he loves and has already won.
On Saturday, the 2022 U.S. Open champion recovered from a rocky front nine by twice holing out from off the green on his inward route to shoot three-under-par 68. In taking a three-shot lead, he also earned a Sunday pairing with World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who fired the dayâs low score of 64 to move up 12 spots.
Fitzpatrick will be trying to win his fourth PGA Tour title and follow up his 2023 playoff victory over Jordan Spieth in the RBC. Scheffler is gunning for tour win No. 21 and his second of the season after opening the year with a victory in The American Express and a runner-up in last weekâs Masters.
As usual, the leaderboard for the $20 million tour signature event is tightly packed, with nine players behind Fitzpatrick who are five shots or closer to the lead.
It didnât look like Fitzpatrick had any shot to get a sizeable lead when he bogeyed two of the first three holes and stood at two over for the round through 8.
âThe bogeys that I made today, I didn't feel like I kind of hit it off the planet and I was scrambling and stuff,â he said. âI just felt that they were holes that I didn't really make my par on, and I felt like I was making good enough swings to make a turnaround on the back nine. Obviously, some nice momentum with the hole-outs on 14 and 15.â
There, he used it: the word momentum. Fitzpatrick birdied the ninth and 12th and then putted in a 27-footer from off the green at the par-3 14th, followed by a chip-in from 29 feet at 15.
âI guess that is momentum,â he said, âwhen you're feeling good with the putter, when you're feeling good with the driver, with your irons, you make a birdie, you hit it close, the next hole, you've got the same number you hit that to, you're feeling comfortable; that's the momentum, isn't it, I guess.â
Matt Fitzpatrick is the 54-hole leader at the RBC Heritage, holding a three-shot lead.
Matt Fitzpatrick is paired with World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler for the final round.
Matt Fitzpatrick recently finished as a runner-up at the Players Championship and won the Valspar Championship.
During the third round, Matt Fitzpatrick shot a three-under-par 68, recovering from a difficult front nine.

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A year ago at this time, Fitzpatrick was struggling to find the top level of his game. He missed the cut in three of his first five starts and hadnât notched anything better than T-22 entering Harbour Town. He managed just a T-38 there but found form with a top-10 finish in the PGA Championship and built on that to notch four consecutive top-10s in the middle of the summer.
Asked to compare the 2025 version of himself versus his current mindset, Fitzpatrick said, âProbably just more nervous. I got myself in this position kind of fairly quickly. I was the last group off maybe on the Saturday at the PGA last year, so that's only a month later than here. âŠ
âEven just being with my psychologist, telling him feelings and thoughts and stuff, it's been good because it's new again. It's probably different for Scottie and Rory, who are in these positions a lot of the weeks of the year and in contention.â
If pressure is a privilege, Fitzpatrick will face loads of it on Sunday in playing alongside Scheffler. The Brit faced some unruly fan abuse at the Players in trying to outduel American Cameron Young, the eventual winner, and because of that, Fitzpatrick was warmly supported in bouncing back to win in the Valspar. Now heâs facing the top player in the world.
But this is, after all, Harbour Townâwhere the Fitzpatrick family traveled to when Matt was young, and where his pulling on of the victorâs plaid jacket was enormously popular.
âYeah, they've got to support their guy, and that's totally fine,â Fitzpatrick said. âAs long as they don't shout in my backswing, then they can do whatever they want. But I have a lot of people that support me this week, as well, and just looking forward to it. Scottie is a great guy and looking forward to playing with him tomorrow.â