Merritt, whose only PGA Tour victory came at last year’s Quicken Loans National, was delighted to shoot a bogey-free 66 after carefully plotting his way around the course.
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He means he really didn’t touch a club.
“This is one of the best fields on the Tour”, he said.
Having started the day tied for third at the Riviera Country Club, the American set the tone with a birdie on his opening hole, before carding a further four – as well as a bogey on the eighth.
Kokrak has never won on the PGA Tour, though power can go a long way at the Riviera course under these conditions and he has plenty of it.
Watson, who is on 12-under, is closely followed by second round leader Jason Kokrak, Chez Reavie and Dustin Johnson, all of whom are on 11-under.
“I’ve talked myself into believing that skiing is actually helping my golf”, the 45-year-old said. “For me, I’m going to go out and try to do the same thing, keep my head down, try to take deep breaths and try to slow it down and hopefully it works out”.
Johnson is not a guy who’s going to feel remotely guilty about that. “You can’t hit driver on certain spots but a lot of the long par 4s, you’ve got to hit driver on. It’s not that brutal hard and fast stuff where your slight miss is really punished and you can’t get it up-and-down”. “I guess being a past champion here they respect that”. Leonard packed up and moved his wife and four children to Aspen, Colorado, a year ago and is loving life on the ski slopes.
“It’s a little bit of a product of the round”, Kokrak said with a smile.
That puts McIlroy just two shots behind Watson heading into Sunday’s final round. “I’ve probably played the most golf at these times we’re playing at, the early tee time yesterday at 6:40”. He said he had no concerns about the change. That was the toughest part, because nobody expected me to hit the shot that good, and then the putt, so everybody expects you to make the putt. “I’m not going to let this one get to me very much”. Last year, Johnson lost when Hahn made a 25-foot putt on the third playoff hole. I have no bad vibes or anything here.
Reavie, who had a three-shot lead after the eagle, remained in front until he made back-to-back bogeys on Nos.
“But there’s a lot of holes where you can make birdie”.
He made fours on all three par-5s, with 17 being the most spectacular. He was able to clip the ball perfectly, and it checked up just 3 feet above the hole. Webb teetered on the edge of disaster when she over-hit a chip at the 18th hole only to roll the putt in to save par and post eight-under par overall. At 15, he striped an iron to 21/2 feet for birdie. His best finish in three previous appearances was a tie for 41st.
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Scott is playing just his second event of the season after finishing well back at the Sony Open but not only has he won this event previously he has also finished runner-up so this is a golf course that he clearly enjoys.
