Opportunity Knox as Russell aims for a Shanghai double
Hideki Matsuyama.
“And then, of course, I birdied the next, which was a massive momentum change. Those little moments are what add up in a tournament.”
Knox was unable to find any more birdies on the closing stretch and Matsuyama two-putted the 18th for a closing birdie to extend his lead as he looks to become the first Japanese player to win a WGC event.
“The first two days, making lots of birdies, it’s a lot of fun,” the 24-year-old said. “But today, when you’re in a position to win, playing smart and making no bogeys was very satisfying to me.
“Everyone is so good. I know I’m going to have to make some birdies. But I think the key for tomorrow’s round will be not making any bogeys.”
Rory McIlroy was within four of the lead when he produced a brilliant recovery shot on the par- five eighth to set up his third birdie of the day, but the world No. 3 bogeyed the 11th, 12th and 15th to slip down the leaderboard.
Birdies on the 16th and 18th repaired some of the damage and gave McIlroy a round of 70, but that left the 27-year-old eight shots off the lead.
Thomas Pieters, Shane Lowry, Xinjun Zhang, Henrik Stenson and Matt Kuchar were alongside McIlroy on nine under, with Kuchar’s 68 including a hole-in-one on the 17th.
A car had been on offer for an ace if the hole measured more than 200 yards, but the tee had been moved forward to make it 193.
“My caddie alerted me so I literally found out a minute before my shot,” Kuchar said. “I guess the way to describe it is the saddest hole- in- one ever, in that I knew I just made a hole-in-one and I was teased by this beautiful car sitting there that is not to be mine.
“We all had a good laugh about it so it wasn’t too bad. Henrik came up and said, ‘It’s my fault, the back tee box was not in very good shape’.
“He was the one that asked for the tees to be moved forward and I guess that made the hole far too easy. So yeah, he owes me something.”
Soren Kjeldsen.