Walker in command at Pebble Beach

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bruced
February 9, 2014

Barring a massive collapse, Jimmy Walker looks set to secure his third PGA Tour title of the season after building a six-shot lead at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

Walker started the third round with a one-stroke lead alongside Jordan Spieth, but he carded a four-under-par 67 on Saturday to move to 13 under for the tournament with Tim Wilkinson (69) and Hunter Mahan (72) his closest challengers at seven under.

It wasn’t an easy day to play golf on the Californian coast with winds reaching nearly 64 kph and forcing officials to halt the action for more than two hours as the balls were moving on the greens.

Playing at Monterey Peninsula, Walker picked up two birdies in first four holes before dropping his first shot of the tournament at the fifth, but he claimed another three birdies, including two on the final two holes.

“I have never had whatever big lead this is going into the last round,” Walker, who won the Frys.com Open in late December and the Sony Open in Hawaii in January, said.

“It played really tough. When (we) made the turn, coming back and playing about five or six (holes) in a row in the wind, it was really stout.

“We were all just kind of laughing at some of the shots that we were hitting and the numbers we were hitting.”

Joint-second round leader Spieth couldn’t complete his third round, but he carded five bogeys, a double bogey and two birdies in the 15 holes that he played.

Richard Lee is third at six under after 72 while five-time winner Phil Mickelson is in a six-way tie for fifth after carding a one-under-par 71.

“It was a tough day, tough conditions, but I played pretty well,” Mickelson said.