Matt Kuchar maintained his position at the top of the leaderboard at 14-under-par after shooting an up and down round of 70 in the third round of the Memorial Tournament on Saturday. He is joined at the top by Gary Woodland who fired a three-under-69 and William McGirt who compiled one of the rounds of the day, an eight-under-par 64.
The 37-year-old did not start well with a bogey at the first before adding another at the fourth. A run of three birdies immediately after got the world number 18 back on track, before he dropped another at the eighth to turn at even-par for the round.
Kuchar’s back nine started in identical fashion to his front nine with a bogey at the 10th. The 2013 Memorial champion went on a hot streak as he birdied four of his next five holes. Unfortunately his streak was ended by bad weather when play had to be suspended.
Kuchar was able to finish his round after the weather subsided, which he was pleased about,
‘We got pretty lucky there with the weather clearing up, having a couple holes [left to play]. The warmup range session, it wasn’t a whole lot of fun. It was looking nasty with wind and rain. It’s always nice to finish the evening off so you don’t have to start too early. Get a couple hours of sleep. I think we all relish those few hours of sleep,’ he said after his round.
After coming back after the weather delay, the 2015 Fiji International champion played his last three holes in one-over-par, although it did not seem to concern him that much.
‘[The weather delay is] part of the deal. We do it a lot during the year. It’s something that you kind of better get accustomed to. I came out and hit a not very good shot on the 16th, made a nice up-and-down. A couple of really good shots on the 17th. It’s never fun to bogey the 18th, but almost felt glad to bogey the 18th at the same time. I could have made a mess of it’. he said.
Kuchar is still confident going into the final round given his record Muirfield Village Golf Club,
‘I love this golf course. This is the highlight for me of the year. Certainly got great memories here. My track record is very good. I’ve had a lot of success here, having a win back in 2013. I’ll certainly be looking forward to tomorrow’s round of golf’ he added.
World number one Jason Day is still in contention at 11-under-par while Jordan Spieth is further back at four-under-par. Rory McIlroy is five shots off the pace at nine-under-par. Charl Schwartzel is the leading South African at seven-under-par while George Coetzee is at one-over-par.
