Saturday was a horror show for Jason Day at the RBC Heritage and it opened the door for Luke Donald and a host of contenders.
Day was simply awful. He started poorly, he was two-over after three holes and it got worse as the day went on. He staggered home with a 41 on the back nine, shot 79 and went from the overnight lead to tie for 41st. The other overnight leader, Kevin Chappell, didn’t fare much better. He double-bogeyed the last hole to shoot 75 and fell back to a tie for 13th.
While the two leaders struggled, Donald worked his way around the breezy course and shot a two-under par 69 that left him alone at the top at seven-under par. “That was hard work,” he said as he walked off the 18th green. “Coming down the last few holes, it felt like the greens were getting firmer and faster. I hit a lot of good shots, I’m happy with that score. I need to go out there and be aggressive tomorrow, hopefully shoot three or four under. Hopefully that will be good enough.”
He will play with Jason Kokrak, who shot 68 and finished at six-under with Charley Hoffman. Hoffman took the lead with a 25-foot birdie putt at the 16th then finished bogey-bogey to fall out of the last pairing for Sunday.
“I made a great birdie at 16 and I thought I hit good shots and next thing you know I make two bogeys. Hopefully I’ve got a shot coming down the stretch tomorrow and I can show what I’ve got.”
Rookie Patton Kizzire, who played with Donald, shot an even par 71 and was the only player at five-under.
Kevin Na went out early and shot the day’s best round, a five-under par 66 to get to three-under.
