Daniel Berger wasn’t perfect, but he managed to avoid big trouble, something almost no one has been able to accomplish this week on the PGA National course.
That’s why Berger is well installed at the controls of the Honda Classic.
On Saturday, he entered his third round with a three-stroke lead and by the end of the day the lead had widened to five strokes. He played 69 (minus-1) to bring his total to minus-11.
Tomorrow, he will be 18 holes away from winning a tournament in front of family and friends 15 minutes from the family home.
Shane Lowry (67), Chris Kirk (71), Sepp Straka (69) and Kurt Kitayama (71), who led after the opening round, are all tied for second at 6 under.
Canadian Adam Svensson (71) is sixth at 5 under.
Only 13 of the 73 golfers who qualified for the weekend rounds played under par on Saturday. Nobody played an exceptional round and barring a catastrophe in Berger’s game, it will take a miracle for someone to dislodge him to deprive him of his fifth career PGA Tour title.
It was Lowry who had the best round of the day and he only played under-3.
“I kept my drives in the fairway and did pretty well on my putts,” Lowry said. My game on the greens was pretty average all week. I was able to adapt as the days went by. »
However, he will have to find something else or more precisely, hope that Berger misses something.
“Obviously, we want to join him tomorrow, but I don’t think we can go after someone on this course, analyzes Lowry. You just have to keep playing the best you can and hope that’s enough. »
Andrew Kozan, Curtis Thompson, Billy Horschel and Kevin Streelman all shot 68 on Saturday, but for them that just means they’re within par after 54 holes. At this distance, they don’t even see Berger far ahead of them.
At the start of the day, indications suggested that Berger could be joined by the peloton. On his first tee shot, he shot the ball into the tall grass to the left. He repeated the same mistake on the fourth hole of the day and got stuck in the pit on the seventh.
But each time, the 28-year-old American was able to get away with saving his par. Even on the tenth hole when he took two putts to put his ball down the hole with 65 feet to go.
The only stain on his card appeared on the last hole of the day when he committed his only bogey.
Kirk is the only golfer to have trailed Berger for a while, falling to three shots when approaching the 14th flag. A detour in the woods then cost him a double bogey.
