Strong finish gives Bae four-shot lead

SouthKorean closes with three big putts, while former CSU standout Laird falls five shots back after a 71.

napa, calif. » Bae Sang-moon took the lead early and expanded it late Saturday in the Frys.com Open, closing with three big putts for a 7-under-par 65 and a four-shot lead going into the final round.

The final three holes at Silverado changed everything.

They enabled Matt Kuchar and Brooks Koepka to get back into the hunt, but only briefly because of the great finish by Bae.

The South Korean was on the verge of making a sloppy bogey on the par-5 16th. Leading by two, hewent into a hazard, hit a poor chip that barely got onto the fringe and then holed the 15-footer to save par.

With the tee moved forward on No. 17 to make it play about 292 yards to an elevated green, Bae hit his drive to just inside 6 feet and holed that for eagle, and thenmade a 15foot birdie putt on the 18th hole.

He was at 16-under 200, four shots clear of PGATour rookie Zach Blair, who made a late birdie for a 69.

Kuchar hit driver to 5 feet on the 17th for an eagle and shot a 66, putting him in the penultimate group and still with a shot of winning.

Koepka had a birdie-birdie-birdie finish — with his power, he only needed a 3-wood on the 17th to reach the green — and shot 67. They were at 11-under 205, along with Scott Langley (69) and second-round leader Martin Laird (71), a former Colorado State player. Former Colorado Academy player Mark Hubbard’s 75 was 10 shots worse than Friday’s round that included a hole-in-one, dropping him to 4-under 212.

While Bae has control of the tournament, he wasn’t sure how he would approach the final round.

“So many good players behind me,” he said. “PGA Tour is always competitive every day, so I don’t play just safe sometimes and aggressive sometimes. I need a really, really good combination.”