A sparse crowd of only 201,003 showed up Saturday at the Phoenix Open and it was Danny Lee who came away with a 54-hole lead for the first time in his career.
Four birdies on the front nine set the table for Lee, who will start the final round at 13-under par, three better than Rickie Fowler (70) and Hideki Matsuyama (68).
It was moving day in front of a record crowd at the TPC Scottsdale where the golf fans hang out on the front nine and the party animals inhabit the final holes.
On the day the players call “moving day” it was Phil Mickelson making one of the biggest moves. Lefty’s 65 jumped him into the top six. He’s eight-under par and within striking distance if he can find another low round on Sunday but he warned that task is easier said than done.
“Possibly,” Mickelson said. “But’s it’s hard to go low here now. It’s gone from an offensive course to a defensive course. It feels great, feels great to see those putts go in.”
Two others playing offense were Bryce Molder and Boo Weekley. Molder shot the low score of the week, a seven-under par 64 to get in the house at nine-under with Weekley, who shot 65.
Fowler was in scramble mode for most of the back nine, playing defense, as Mickelson called it. Same for James Hahn, who at one point early on the back nine shared the lead with Lee but a pair of double-bogeys and another bogey sent him tumbling and he’d eventually shoot 74 and fall back to seven-under, a half-dozen behind.
It was a raucouos crowd at the par three 16th and they sounding booed Bubba Watson who earlier in the week made disparaging comments about the tournament. He later apologized but to no avail with the rowdy bunch at the stadium hole.
Watson, who has a stroke average on this course under 69, put up a 73 and fell back to two-under par.
Defending champion Brooks Koepka fell totally out of contention thanks to a 74 that left him at even par.
