Moore stays bogey-free
Ryan Moore carded the joint lowest score of the PGA Tour Valspar Championship third round on Saturday to take the 54-hole lead in Florida.
Starting on the front nine, the American shot 12 consecutive pars before raising his game to fire four birdies in the last six holes.
Moore carded a four-under 67, tying Daniel Summerhays for the round’s best score, to go to nine-under and take a one shot lead over second-placed Jordan Spieth.
“Any day around this golf course with no bogies is pretty good especially the spots where I hit it,” he told PGAtour.com.
“I was able to save par really low in the middle of my round, made some good putts but had some good chip shots, was able to get it rolling there and make some birdies coming in.
“It was windy, it was tough. It wasn’t easy to get it around the hole. I stayed patient, just kept hitting pretty good shots. I just kind of kept plodding along.
“I was not disappointed being even par through 12 holes. That’s for sure with the conditions.”
Spieth shot four birdies and a bogey to card a 68 and take second on the leaderboard, while Derek Ernst is third on seven-under after he shot an eagle, three birdies and three bogies for a 69 and Sean O’Hair is one shot back in third after shooting four birdies and two bogeys to also card a 69.
Moore has held the 54-hole lead twice before in his PGA Tour career but never managed to hold on for victory.
He finished third at the 2010 BMW Championship and tied for fifth at the 2014 Travelers Championship after being in the same situation.
Moore has gone on to win after holding a share of the third round lead. The 32-year-old has been in this situation thrice and gone on to win twice, most recently the 2014 CIMB Classic.
“I don’t know my history. Pretty much I’m trying to shoot as low as I can every single day, every single round and wherever I end up at the end of the day, that is it, whether that’s the lead,” he said.
“I don’t really look at it as having a lead or this or that. I’ve played good golf and somehow that’s gotten me on top after three days and I’ve got to continue to do that to stay on top and end up on top on Sunday.”
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