Garcia, Davis and Poston share lead at Sanderson Farms
WASHINGTON: No-look Sergio Garcia and Australian Cameron Davis, who opened with five birdies, shared the lead with American JT Poston ater Saturday’s third round of the US PGA Sanderson Farms Championship.
Davis fired a US PGA career-low 63, nineunder par, while Garcia had a bogey-free 66 and Poston shot 69 to stand level on 14-under 202 ater 54 holes at the Country Club of Jackson in Mississippi.
Garcia, seeking his first US PGA win since capturing the 2017 Masters, made six birdies and praised his new puting method of shuting his eyes while striking puts.
“It’s quite simple,” the 40-year-old Spaniard said. “What I’m looking for is to keep my stroke as smooth as possible. The less things I have in my head, or my eyes, the beter.
“When I do it, I have a smooth stroke and I make a lot of good puts. When I don’t, it’s not quite as good.”
Garcia, who has won three times on the European Tour since capturing the green jacket but is ranked a modest 51st in the world, sank an eight-foot birdie put at the second hole.
He closed the front nine with back-to-back birdies from 12 and 15 feet and added tap-in birdies at the par-5 11th and par-4 12th.
Garcia also birdied the 15th, blasting from a bunker to three feet and sinking the put.
“It’s mainly trying to be consistent and go with it. Just trust it,” Garcia said.
“We want to make every single put we look at, or don’t look at in this case, but we don’t do that... If I can leave the course feeling I gave it my best chance that’s all I can do.”
Davis was one off the course record as the 25-year-old from Sydney chases his first US PGA title.
“I was in the groove,” Davis said. “I just felt like I had a very good idea of where the ball was going today.”
For much of the round, it was going in the hole for the world number 208.
His first three birdie puts were all from inside six feet and his next two were from between eight and nine feet.
“Rolling the ball well,” Davis said. “I was able to hit it close and do that hole ater hole ater hole.”