Kisner clings on to narrow lead Lahiri struggles, falls to tied 68th
Charlotte, Aug. 13: Unheralded American Kevin Kisner clung to a onestroke lead after Saturday’s roller coaster third round of the PGA Championship, where contenders rose only to be humbled by formidable Quail Hollow.
Kisner, a winner three months ago at Colonial, dropped three strokes in the last three holes but finished with a one-over par 72 to stand on seven-under 206 for 54 holes at the year’s final major tournament.
World number three Hideki Matsuyama, trying to become the first Japanese man to win a major, shot 73 to share second on 207 with American Chris Stroud, who won last week in Reno to take the last spot in the PGA field.
“I’m disappointed in the way I played,” Matsuyama said. “However, I’m happy to just to be one stroke back and still have a chance and looking forward to tomorrow.”
Kisner birdied 14 and 15 for a two-stroke lead but found water on his approach at 16 and lippedout a 30-foot putt to make double bogey.
At 18, Kisner’s approach bounced off a rock in a water hazard and landed in deep rough. He chipped across the green and two-putted for bogey to stay in front.
Matsuyama opened with a bogey, answered with a birdie at the par-5 seventh, but stumbled with back-toback bogeys at 12 and the par-3 13th.
“Probably the pressure had something to do with it, being in the last group of a major tournament,” Matsuyama said. “But I haven’t been spot on all week. And the worries that I had about my swing showed up today in the way I played.”
Justin Thomas, the 14thranked American with three US PGA victories this season, fired a 69, the only sub-par round among the last dozen players, to share fourth with South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen just two strokes adrift.
Oosthuizen, the 2010 British Open champion and a three-time major runnerup, suffered a right arm injury and a bent club after hitting off a tree root on the second hole.
US star Rickie Fowler charged into fourth but closed with bogeys at 16 and 18 sandwiched around a double bogey at the par-3 17th to shoot 73 and share 12th on 212.
Australia’s seventh-ranked Jason Day closed with a quadruple-bogey 8, finding trees and bushes in a disaster that more than offset a three-birdie run from 14-16.
Fourth-ranked Rory McIlroy, trying to snap a three-year drought since winning the 2014 PGA, fired a 73 to stand on 217.
World number two Jordan Spieth closed with a double bogey to shoot 71 and was on 216, 10 shots adrift.