After Matt Jones shot 61 on Thursday and Aaron Wise threw up a pair of 64s, the Champions course at PGA National fought back on Saturday against the field on moving day at the Honda Classic.
Winds got stronger, shifted and blew out of the northeast and as a result, most of the field was battered and bruised by day’s end, especially 36-hole leader Wise.
Wise set a tournament record with a pair of 64s and was 12-under to start the day. He quickly got to 14-under with birdies on two of his first four holes and held a six-shot lead after five holes. But he began a long struggle that saw him play the final 13 holes in seven-over par. Wise finished with 75 and found himself a full three shots behind the leader — Jones, whose 69 got him to 10-under. He’s the only player in double-digits under par through 54-holes.
Snail-chaser J.B. Holmes signed for a five-under par 67 and was the first to post seven-under, putting him in the final pairing with Jones, whose quick pace on the course is a total contrast to Holmes’ notorious slow pace of play.
Wise finished at seven-under and like Holmes, was a shot in front of three players tied at six-under par — C.T. Pan, Cameron Tringale and Sam Ryder. Pan shot the day’s low round, a five-under par 65 that saw him jump 38 spots up the leaderboard and he’ll play in the next-to-last pairing with Wise. Tringale shot 69, Ryder 72.
Only 40 players were under par after three rounds and there were some high scores. Rickie Fowler’s 78 left him next-to-last going into the final round. He was at six-over par, a shot in front of Bronson Burgoon for the anchor spot.
Scores of 76, 77 and 78 were not uncommon on a day when the winds made the Bear Trap holes play treacherously. Wise was in position to maintain the lead but he bogeyed both par threes in the Bear Trap — the 15th and 17th then hit his tee shot on the 18th into a hazard well left of the fairway and had to work hard just to make bogey. He went from 10-under back to seven over the final four holes.
After rounds of 71-68, Phil Mickelson made the cut and shot 69 on Saturday, playing with the afternoon’s low scorer — Pan. Mickelson is tied for 27th at two-under.
