US PGA Championship winner Jason Day and Sang-moon Bae of South Korea fired matching scores of seven-under 63 in a Saturday shoot-out to share the third-round lead at The Barclays.
Day and Bae stood on 11-under-par 199 after a warm, sunny day at the Donald Ross designed Plainfield Country Club course for a one-stroke lead over second-round leader Bubba Watson, who shot 67.
Another shot back at the opening event of the FedExCup play-offs on nine-under 201 were Sweden's Henrik Stenson (67) and Americans Ryan Palmer (65) and British Open champion Zach Johnson, who bogeyed the last for 67.
The players warmed to the task on a perfect day for scoring as England's Justin Rose also posted 63 to move up to five under, while 24-year-old Carlos Ortiz of Mexico registered a bogey-free round of eight-under 62 to stand seven under.
Day and Bae played together and seemed to feed off each other as they alternated birdies through the first five holes after Bae started the string at the first.
Day said: “Sang-moon (got) off to a good start, and he hit it great all day. We were kind of feeding off each other, drafting off each other today. He played some fantastic golf tee-to-green, very solid and had a good day on the greens, as well.”
Bae ran off three birdies in a row from the 14th, while Day eagled the par-five 16th to match him at seven under. Both players bogeyed 17 and birdied the last.
The top 100 players on the FedExCup points list following The Barclays qualify for next week’s Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston, with 70 players advancing to the BMW Championship outside Chicago.
The leading 30 move on to the season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta, with the ultimate points leader winning a $10 million bonus.
