After an early stumble, US Open winner Wyndham Clark went on a roll to seal a five-shot lead on day three of the BMW Championship in St Louis on Saturday. Image courtesy PGA Tour/X.
By Rahul Banerji
US Open champion Wyndham Clark set up a repeat show of Shinnecock Hills on day three of the BMW Championship, and will take a five-shot lead into Title Sunday at Bellerive Country Club.
Clark double-bogeyed his opening hole on Moving Day in St Louis to lose his overnight lead but bounced back with five birdies and an eagle in an eight-hole run to finish on 5 under par 65 and a 54-hole total of 17 under par 193.
At the US Open in June, Clark (64-64-65) led by six shots after Saturday but managed to beat back the hard-charging Sam Burns by one stroke at the wire.
Rory McIlroy (64-69-65) and Patrick Cantlay (67-65-66) shared second place on 12 under 198 with form man Chris Gotterup (64-67-68) in a tie for fourth alongside Gary Woodland (64-65-70) on 11 under 199.
McIlroy sank three straight birdies late in the day and needed to save par from a bunker on 18 for his 65 while Cantlay birdied 18 for his 4 under total on Saturday.
Big gap
Admitted McIlroy later, ”That’s a lot to make up. But if I focus on myself, try to shoot a good score – I shot a 64 and a 65 this week – shoot something similar tomorrow, you never know.
“I needed to be patient the last three days, because my game has been good in parts, but then it has been a struggle in other ways. I didn’t hit my first fairway today until the 10th hole.
“Playing this golf course from the rough isn’t fun, but I hung in there, my short game saved me a couple of times and I got some momentum coming in.
“I am in a good spot in terms of where I am at on the leaderboard, but it’s going to take a heroic effort from one of us to catch Wyndham.”
Incidentally, McIlroy McIlroy could be in line to become the first player since Tiger Woods in 1997) to win the Masters Tournament and the BMW Championship in the same year.
Lone blip
Clark was bogey-free over the first two days but pulled his tee shot into the rough to start his third round to drop a double-bogey and fall behind Woodland.
Birdies on holes seven, 10, 11 13 and 14 with an eagled eighth gave the US Open champion almost unstoppable momentum and put him in line for a third title of the year.
Abourt his hot putter, Clark said later, ”You start seeing the lines and you’re so much more committed. You’re like, ‘OK, that’s exactly it.’ And then you just stroke it and the ball goes in.”
St Jude winner and world number one Scottie Scheffler shot a 68 to be tied for 15th, 12 shots behind Clark with the top 30 progressing to next week’s Tour Championship at East Lake.
Also read: Scheffler cruises to St Jude title, seals FedEx standings top spot
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