Gary Woodland had to play hard to stay in front Saturday in the Houston Open and he added a pair of birdies late in his round for a 5-under 65 that gave him a one-shot lead over Nicolai Højgaard as he goes for his first win since the 2019 U.S. Open.

Woodland and Højgaard (63) were flawless in the final hour at Memorial Park and created some separation going into today, with no one else closer than five shots.

Woodland has become a popular figure in golf for the way he has handled his recovery from brain surgery in September 2023, and earlier this month opening up on his struggles with post-traumatic syndrome disorder during an emotional interview at The Players Championship.

His golf has looked as good as ever, with full control of his swing and full use of his athletic power.

“I’ve just got to take a deep breath,” Woodland said. “I’ll have a good night ahead of me tonight to recover and rest, and tomorrow just don’t get ahead of yourself. I’m here, I put myself in this position for a reason, so take a deep breath and maintain what I’m doing.”

Woodland was at 18-under 192, the first time he has held the 54-hole lead since that 2019 major title at Pebble Beach. He has been helped by a change in shafts in his irons, noticing he was losing a little control as his speed began to return.

He was particularly strong down the stretch, and he had to be with Højgaard chasing him. Woodland drilled a 2-iron over the water an onto the green at the par-5 16th — one of only five players to hit the green in two — for a two-putt birdie.

His drive on the reachable par-4 17th hit the bunker with such force that it hopped out onto the collar, and he pitched down to 5 feet for another birdie.

Højgaard was right there with him, hitting a nice chip on the 16th for a birdie and getting up-and-down from a bunker on the 17th for another one. The Dane got back into the mix with a 62 on Friday, and he was equally effective on Saturday with his 63. He has made 15 birdies and one eagle the past two rounds.

Hyo Joo Kim blew past Nelly Korda and right into the LPGA record book Saturday with her second score this week of 11-under 61, giving her the lowest 54-hole score in LPGA history and a four-shot lead in the Ford Championship in Phoenix.

Kim had seven consecutive one-putt greens, including her torrid start to the back nine on the Cattail course at Whirlwind Golf Club when she went birdie-birdie-eagle-birdie as she started to pull away.

Even her bad shots turned out good. On the par-4 16th, the 30-year-old South Korean looked away in disgust when she pulled her approach, only for the ball to bounce right and take the slope down to 7 feet for yet another birdie.

She had a two-putt birdie on the 17th, and her par on the 18th put her at 25-under 191, breaking by one shot the 54-hole record previous shared by four players.

“All round everything was great — putter, iron, driver, everything was as I would want it to go,” Kim said.

There was little Korda could do about. She started with a two-shot lead, posted a bogey-free 67 and goes into the final round trailing by four shots.

MOTORSPORTS

Denny Hamlin earned his fifth pole position at Martinsville Speedway and 49th of his Cup Series career, tying him with NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Isaac for 10th all time.

The Joe Gibbs Racing star turned a 98.241-mph lap Saturday in the No. 11 Toyota to beat William Byron, whose No. 24 Chevrolet qualified second at 97.957 mph for today’s 400-lap race.

With his win two weeks ago at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Hamlin, 45, broke a tie with Kevin Harvick for 10th on the all-time win list in NASCAR’s premier series. He is two poles away from tying the career total of Ryan Newman, one of the greatest qualifiers in NASCAR history.

“It’s pretty awesome,” said Hamlin, who grew up a few hours east of Martinsville in the Richmond, Virginia suburb of Chesterfield. “Really with age, the hardest part is still having the fast time. It’s one thing to be able to manage races and use your experience to your advantage. But usually the first thing to go is your all-out speed, and we’re still knocking off poles, which is really good. I was around when Newman was just unstoppable in qualifying. So damn, I didn’t know he had that many.”

Hamlin has six wins at Martinsville, and his victory last season broke a 10-year drought at the 0.526-mile oval.

Byron won the most recent race at Martinsville last October and has victories in three of the past eight races there.

Josh Berry qualified third, followed by Ty Gibbs and Shane van Gisbergen.

Brad Keselowski, who will make his 600th career start today, qualified 23rd.

FIGURE SKATING

Ilia Malinin is back on the top step of the podium.

Six weeks after a disastrous free skate knocked the Olympic gold-medal favorite off the podium, the “quad god” reeled off one huge jump after another, and a backflip for good measure, to retain his world championship title for the third year running, in Prague.

Malinin shouted and punched the air with relief after finishing a skate that showed he had achieved his desire to “move on” from the Olympics after days tormented by his mistakes.

He praised the crowd’s support, saying: “It was really challenging, really hard but with you guys I was able to make it through.” His aim, he added, had simply been to get through the free skate “in one piece.”

Skating last after leading the short program, just as he did in Milan, Malinin landed five high-scoring quadruple jumps but not his pioneering quad axel, a jump he didn’t attempt at the Olympics.

Malinin said that he came to the worlds with a fresh mindset after all the pressure from the Olympics was over. His goal was to “enjoy every moment on the ice and just have fun out there.”

Malinin scored 218.11 in the free skate for a total 329.40, far ahead of silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama of Japan on 306.67. Another Japanese skater, Shun Sato, was third on 288.54.

TENNIS

Aryna Sabalenka beat Coco Gauff in the Miami Open women’s singles final 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 on Saturday.

The world No. 1 overpowered fourth-ranked Gauff in the first and third sets with sizzling groundstroke winners and became the first player to accomplish the “Sunshine Double” — winning Indian Wells followed by Miami in the same season — since Iga Swiatek in 2022.

It was Sabalenka’s second straight title at the Miami Open, Gauff’s hometown tournament, and put her ahead of Gauff in their head-to-head record, 7-6.

“You’ve pushed me to be a better player,” Sabalenka said during the ceremony, before adding about the crowd, “You always bring a full stadium.”

The match lasted 2 hours, 11 minutes.