Chez Reavie fired a 63 to take a commanding six-shot lead over a chasing pack that saw Louis Oosthuizen ejected from the picture at the Travelers Championship.
The SA No 1 dropped 38 places on Saturday after a 74 derailed his bid for a first win on US soil. He hit 12 of 18 greens in regulation before his calamitous 13th hole.
A birdie at 10 helped Oosthuizen back to level before a drop at the 12th. The par 5 13th saw Oosthuizen dunk two balls in the water en route to a championship-ending triple bogey.
At the top, Reavie was plodding along during the third round, watching playing partner Zack Sucher extend his lead.
Then came the turn, both for the round and in the fortunes of the two players.
Coming off a third-place tie last week in the US Open, Reavie matched a tournament record with a back-nine 28 to shoot a 7-under 63. He took advantage of Sucher’s problems and turned a six-stroke deficit into a six-stroke lead heading into Sunday.
The 2008 Canadian Open winner for his lone PGA TOUR title, Reavie had a 16-under 194 total at TPC River Highlands. He birdied Nos. 8, 10-13, 15 and 17-18 and has the largest 54-hole lead in Travelers history.
‘Zack got some tough breaks early,’ Reavie said. ‘I was able to kind of keep plugging along and make a few putts and the rest was history. I kind of caught fire at the end.’
Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands (par 70):
194 – Chez Reavie 65-66-63
200 – Keegan Bradley 65-66-69, Zack Sucher 64-65-71
201 – Roberto Diaz (MEX) 69-65-67, Jason Day (AUS) 70-63-68
202 – Bryson DeChambeau 68-70-64, Kevin Tway 68-68-66, Tommy Fleetwood (ENG) 66-69-67, Martin Laird (SCO) 67-67-68
203 – Patrick Cantlay 66-72-65, Andrew Landry 67-71-65, J.J. Spaun 68-69-66, Lee Kyoung-hoon (KOR) 64-72-67, Wyndham Clark 68-67-68, Joaquin Niemann (CHI) 69-65-69, Vaughn Taylor 68-66-69, Ryan Blaum 67-67-69, Kevin Streelman 67-67-69, Adam Long 66-67-70
204 – Brian Harman 72-66-66, Alex Prugh 68-68-68, Nick Watney 66-69-69, Scott Brown 67-67-70, Patrick Reed 68-66-70, Andrew Putnam 66-67-71, Robert Streb 65-68-71, Paul Casey (ENG) 65-68-71, Ryan Moore 68-64-72
