England’s Paul Casey charged into the final turn, shooting a 5-under-par 66 to take a three-shot lead after the third round Sunday at the Deutsche Bank Championship.
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By relinquishing his European Tour card to focus on the United States circuit Paul Casey gave up any chance of making this month’s Ryder Cup team, but the Briton will feel that decision has been vindicated if he wins the Deutsche Bank Championship on Monday.
Harman is in the final group with Casey and Smylie Kaufman (68), who was in the group at 11-under 202 along with Jimmy Walker (70) and Kevin Chappell, the second-round leader who shot 71.
He elected to hit a buzzing long iron over the marsh that touched down just shy of the putting surface and slowly rolled to within a foot of the hole, seeing him sink an eagle.
The round could have been even better for the World No.5 who saw a 210-yard approach on the last hole lip out for an albatross that would have moved him into double figures. The wind picked up and his caddie, John McLaren, stepped him and called him off.
“There’s still things we’re missing and it hurts”, said Casey. “I’ve never started a tournament like that and went on to win it, so it’s a great opportunity to try and overcome a little bit of adversity to start with and then get into it”.
Casey was amazed by the low scoring, including his own, given the wind. The PGA Tour prepared for the conditions by moving up several tees.
“A lot of guys were tearing it up”, he said.
Casey has been through that before.
He was not eligible, after resigning his membership of the European Tour to concentrate on the PGA Tour. But it might be tougher to pick a “hot” player who doesn’t even make it to the third playoff event.
All he has left is one more round, and what figures to be a day of nasty weather.
He fell out of the “Big 3” conversation earlier this year when Dustin Johnson won the U.S. Open, Henrik Stenson won the British Open, and McIlroy kept sliding, largely because of his putting. He was a birdie away from tying for the 36-hole lead on Saturday. Meanwhile, Jordan Spieth and Sergio Garcia both fell down to 5-under overall.
Aaron Baddeley is 56th this week and now 58th in the FedEx Cup but appears to have done enough to advance to next week’s BMW Championship while Marc Leishman will need something special tomorrow if his season does not end at this event.
McIlroy continued his recent improvement on the greens as he offset an opening bogey with a birdie at the second, and he was soon threatening the lead when he carded four birdies in a row from the fifth.
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Olympic champion and world No. 10 Justin Rose of England shot a 69 and Tony Finau put up a 68, and the two are also tied for seventh, six back of Casey. Halfway through the FedEx Cup play-offs and McIlroy is now bang in contention to win the $10million bonus on the Sunday before the Ryder Cup.
