Jason Day holds four-shot lead after difficult third round at The Players
Jason Day has the same lead after three rounds of The Players as he did after two.
And that’s where the similarities end between the second and third rounds at TPC Sawgrass.
Day had a four-shot lead after wrapping the second round on Saturday morning, setting a new 36-hole championship scoring record at 15-under 129. He finished up a tidy 66 and looked like he was charting a course for Greg Norman’s 72-hole tournament scoring record.
Then the course changed dramatically. PGA Tour officials expected somewhat humid air without a whole lot of wind. They got the complete opposite. The result was a Stadium Course that dried out and sped up, playing on the edge of fairness. Scores went up, as did round times and frustrations.
Despite a pair of double bogeys in a three-hole stretch, Day righted the ship in the final 10 holes, playing them in 3 under par to salvage 1-over 73.
“That was the hardest round of golf I’ve ever played,” said Day.
The world No. 1 thought the speed of the putting surfaces were a little extreme, even with his demonstrable flatstick skills.
“A bit borderline in my opinion,” Day said. “A 10-foot putt felt like it was 60 feet away.”
Day is four clear of three players at 10 under par, including Alex Cejka, Hideki Matsuyama and Ken Duke, the latter two of which were among the six players who managed to break par on in Round 3.
Duke was particularly spectacular. The 47-year-old, playing back to front, reeled off five consecutive birdies in the middle of his second nine en route to a back-nine 30 and a third-round 65. Against the Saturday field average of 75.6, Duke was almost 11 strokes better than the average player.
Francesco Molinari is alone in fifth at 9 under par. Kevin Chappell and Retief Goosen, who each shot 2-under 70, are tied for sixth at 8 under.
Day is going for a seventh PGA Tour win in his last 17 starts, and he’s vying to become the fifth player in Players history to go wire-to-wire en route to victory. And the Aussie made it clear that he sees winning this title, even if it’s not quite a major, as crucial to his legacy.
“I want to win this tournament so badly,” Day said. “I really do, especially with how you can go down in history.”
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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