Brendon Todd remains the man to catch at the WGC-FedEx St Jude Classic in Memphis after a third-round 69 left him a shot clear heading into the final round.
Shane Lowry is the best of the Irish after a third round 67 left him at six under par and six shots behind Todd with 18 to play.
Lowry started quickly on Saturday with three birdies in his first four holes before giving a shot back at the ninth. Further birdies came at the 12th and 16th but a frustrating three-putt at the 17th saw him drop a shot and sign for a 67.
Four shots further back is Graeme McDowell after a third round of 70 while Rory McIlroy couldn’t follow Friday’s 66 with another good round, signing eventually for a 73 to sit at two over.
At the top of the leaderboard, Todd, a three-time PGA Tour winner, mixed five birdies with four bogeys in his one-under round and at 12-under par leads Korea’s Byeong Hun An by a single shot.
The 35-year-old said he was well aware of the magnitude of the position he was in at the TPC Southwind course.
Todd said on Saturday: “Winning a WGC would be the biggest win of my career and something I’ve been dreaming of doing for a long time.”
An carded a 66, with Rickie Fowler third on 10 under after matching Todd’s 69.
A host of major winners were then queueing up to mount a final-round challenge, with Brooks Koepka fourth on nine under, Justin Thomas a shot further back, and Phil Mickelson and Louis Oosthuizen on seven under, along with Chez Reavie and England’s Matt Fitzpatrick.
Fowler briefly displaced playing partner Todd at the top of the leaderboard but back-to-back birdies at the 12th and 13th put the latter back in control
England’s Tom Lewis carded a spectacular 61 in Memphis to move into the top 10 on six under, but world number one Jon Rahm is outside the top 50 after a round of 71.
Meanwhile, in California, Séamus Power sits eight points off the lead in seventh place at the stableford-scoring Barracuda Championship.
The Waterford man made birdies at the third, fourth, sixth, eighth, 11th and 12th on Saturday before disappointing back-to-back bogeys at the 14th and 15th to sign for a round of 67 which increased his total by 10 points to +25.
Players receive 8 points for albatross, 5 for eagle, 2 for birdie, zero for par, minus-1 for bogey and minus-3 for double bogey or worse.
Troy Merritt leads the way on +33 after making eight birdies and two bogeys in his round on Saturday.
Collated third round scores & totals in the World Golf Championships — FedEx St. Jude Invitational, TPC Southwind, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America (USA unless stated, par 70):
198 Brendon Todd 64 65 69
199 Byeong-Hun An (Kor) 68 65 66
200 Rickie Fowler 64 67 69
201 Brooks Koepka 62 71 68
202 Justin Thomas 66 70 66
203 Phil Mickelson 67 70 66, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 68 67 68, Chez Reavie 66 67 70, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng) 70 64 69
204 Jason Day (Aus) 68 67 69, Joel Dahmen 72 67 65, Shane Lowry (Irl) 68 69 67, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 71 69 64, Tom Lewis (Eng) 73 70 61, Sungjae Im (Kor) 67 68 69, Webb Simpson 69 66 69
205 Dustin Johnson 69 68 68, Daniel Berger 71 67 67, Scottie Scheffler 69 67 69, Xander Schauffele 68 70 67, Jordan Spieth 68 69 68
206 Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn) 68 71 67, Sung Kang (Kor) 65 69 72, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 67 71 68, Nick Taylor (Can) 69 70 67, Cameron Champ 71 68 67, Corey Conners (Can) 72 68 66
207 Abraham Ancer (Mex) 67 75 65
208 Matthew Wolff 69 74 65, JT Poston 70 68 70, Jason Kokrak 69 68 71, Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 68 70 70, Andrew Landry 70 72 66, Kevin Streelman 71 66 71, Keegan Bradley 68 70 70, Marc Leishman (Aus) 70 69 69, Collin Morikawa 70 71 67, Billy Horschel 70 70 68, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 69 69 70
209 Ryan Palmer 69 69 71, Bryson DeChambeau 67 73 69, Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa) 71 70 68, Matt Kuchar 66 72 71, Bubba Watson 68 70 71, Mackenzie Hughes (Can) 68 71 70, Patrick Reed 71 69 69
210 Kevin Na 72 64 74, Tony Finau 70 68 72, Patrick Cantlay 73 72 65, Tyler Duncan 74 70 66, Kevin Kisner 70 68 72
211 Max Homa 66 73 72
212 Rory McIlroy (NIrl) 73 66 73, Matt Jones (Aus) 71 72 69, Tommy Fleetwood (Eng) 72 67 73
213 Lucas Herbert (Aus) 71 73 69, Michael Thompson 70 74 69, Robert Macintyre (Sco) 71 73 69, Gary Woodland 71 69 73, Danny Willett (Eng) 69 70 74
214 Jazz Janewattananond (Tha) 75 71 68, Joaquin Niemann (Chi) 73 73 68, Viktor Hovland (Nor) 67 75 72, Victor Perez (Fra) 73 71 70, Ian Poulter (Eng) 73 69 72, Tyrrell Hatton (Eng) 72 69 73
215 Haotong Li (Chn) 68 73 74, Cameron Smith (Aus) 72 72 71, Jon Rahm (Spa) 70 74 71
216 Matt Wallace (Eng) 72 71 73, Cheng-Tsung Pan (Tai) 72 74 70, Brandt Snedeker 73 71 72
218 Sebastian Soderberg (Swe) 72 71 75, Paul Casey (Eng) 71 78 69
219 Adam Hadwin (Can) 73 71 75, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 71 73 75
221 Shaun Norris (Rsa) 73 76 72
223 Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spa) 73 74 76
Collated third round scores & totals in the USPGA Tour Barracuda Championship, Tahoe Mt. Club (Old Greenwood), Truckee, California, United States of America (USA unless stated, par 72):
(a) denotes amateurs
33 Troy Merritt 8 11 14
29 Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 10 8 11, Maverick McNealy 10 9 10
28 Robert Streb 11 9 8
26 Richy Werenski 6 11 9, Joseph Bramlett 6 11 9
25 Séamus Power (Irl) 11 4 10
24 Matthias Schwab (Aut) 9 11 4
23 Scott Stallings 4 8 11
22 Adam Schenk 14 4 4, Justin Suh 8 5 9 Chesson Hadley 2 9 11, Ryan Moore 14 2 6, Kyle Stanley 8 14 0
21 Pat Perez 6 3 12, Alex Noren (Swe) 7 8 6, Beau Hossler 8 6 7 Cameron Percy (Aus) 10 8 3, Tyler McCumber 6 10 5, Fabian Gomez (Arg) 3 7 11
