GARCIA LEAPS UP ON THE LEADERBOARD
Miami, May 14: Masters champion Sergio Garcia charged into contention during Saturday’s windy third round of The Players Championship while Americans Kyle Stanley and J.B. Holmes shared the lead after 54 holes.
Spain’s Garcia, the 2008 Players winner, and Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo each fired fiveunder-par 67s at the TPC Sawgrass course to leap up the leaderboard even as Holmes and Stanley clung to the lead of the US PGA Tour event at nineunder 207.
In his first start since last month’s breakthrough win at Augusta National after 73 prior major failures, Garcia shined with six birdies, three bogeys and a 17-foot chip-in eagle at the par-5 16th.
Stanley fired and 72 and Holmes a 70 with each making a birdie at the par-3 17th island green to stay one stroke ahead of South African Louis Oosthuizen, who shot 73 to stand on 208.
South Korea’s Kim SiWoo was fourth on 209 after a 68 with Grillo and Britain’s Ian Poulter on 210 and Garcia sharing seventh on 211 with American Patrick Cantlay and Swede Alex Noren.
Stanley, who birdied 17 for the third day in a row, took his only PGA title at the 2012 Phoenix Open. It came a week after his only prior 54-hole lead, a six-shot edge that he squandered at Torrey Pines, a triple bogey at the last hole leading to a playoff loss to Brandt Snedeker. Holmes made an 18-foot birdie putt at the 11th and five-footers at 12 and 17 for birdies to boost his chances of his fifth PGA title, his first since the 2015 Houston Open.