Rickie Fowler breezes to 65, 4-shot lead at PGA National

Let’s be fair here: It’s not easy to win on the PGA Tour.

Rickie Fowler is in the hunt Saturday at the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic 2017 in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Fowler said the chip would have been relatively standard, and that he used the putter only because of bare grass from where players had been walking. A four-shot lead is nice.

So he went with option three, and hammered it with so much bending left-to-right action that it cut through the trees and settled about 18 feet away.

Clearly Pan was rattled, but he kept his focus to birdie the hole with a 28-foot putt.

That put him at 13-under 197 and plenty of room for error.

Fowler had shot 66-66 a year ago for a one-shot lead, but fell back with a 74. Amusing enough, the playing conditions have been rather calm at PGA National so far, but Sunday will present strong winds.

“I love to play in the wind”, Fowler said when told it is expected to blow at least 25 miles per hour in the final round. “I’m not going to be able to take a 36- or 54-hole lead every time and win, but the more times I put myself there, the more trophies I get to hold on Sunday”.

The rest of the field likely needs Fowler to falter Sunday to have a legitimate chance, but there are some strong golfers lurking if that happens. “But other numbers do, as well”. Along with birdies on three of the par 3s, he hit all 18 greens in regulation. But he went long on the 17th and was perplexed by the Bermuda grass that he rarely sees. He made bogey and eventually lost in a playoff.

Martin Kaymer and Anirban Lahiri each shot 5-under, 65, while Rickie Fowler and Ian Poulter were two of six who finished at 4-under, 66. There’s plenty at stake this time.

Bryan is a rookie on the PGA Tour and is playing this event for the first occasion but he was a standout on the Web.Com Tour last season where he won on three occasions and his progress towards a possible first PGA Tour victory will be watched with interest.

“Certainly 15 and 17, you’re thinking about those holes for a long time and trying to figure out your strategy and just really praying to get through them”, he said.

“But the best I could have done was hit just short of the green”, Bryan said. “It’s a new course for me”. He birdied two of the last three holes in Round 3.

“I really went to it with a lot of optimism and enthusiasm and embraced the challenge of changing back to a different style of putting”, said Scott, whose priorities changed when he married Marie Kojzar in 2014, and their daughter, Bo Vera, was born a year later.

Emiliano Grillo and Sean O’Hair lead a group tied for third at seven under after both shot 65s on Saturday.

South Africans Darren Fichardt and Dean Burmester were 11 under.

CHONBURI, Thailand – Heavy washed out most of the play in the LPGA Thailand.

Numerous players hadn’t started the third round when thunder and lightning forced organizers to halt play early in the afternoon at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club.