The Daily Wrap-up, Round 3: Turning Stone Resort
VERONA, N.Y. (AP) -- Scott Piercy shot a 6-under 66 on Saturday for a share of the lead with Matt Kuchar after the third round of the Turning Stone Resort Championship.
Kuchar had a 67 to match Piercy at 14-under 202 on the Atunyote Golf Club course.
With the sun shinning after two days of heavy rain, Kuchar strung together four birdies over a seven-hole stretch.
"If you look at conditions like these, you'd be really disappointed to make bogeys out there," Kuchar said. "I feel like you can fire at most greens."
Piercy had even better run, making four birdies in a five-hole span in the first Fall Series event of the year.
"I feel like my game's where it needs to be to win," Piercy said.
"I'm making a few putts, hitting it real solid, hitting lots of greens, which takes bogeys out of play," he said. "If I can hit 17 greens tomorrow, I like my chances for winning."
Rod Pampling (65) and Leif Olson (68) were a stroke back.
Nicholas Thompson (69) was two strokes behind.
Second-round leader Vaughn Taylor struggled Saturday, shooting a 71 to drop into a tie for sixth at 11 under with Fredrik Jacobson (69), Tim Petrovic (68) and Jonathan Byrd (67).
Mathias Gronberg tied the course record with a 64. He was 10 under. He matched the record set by Jarrod Lyle and Jeff Maggert the 2007 tournament.
"When you start rolling in eagle putts, everything seems a lot easier," said Gronberg, who lamented that he missed a 2-foot birdie putt on No. 14. "Obviously it was great weather today, and I took full advantage of it."
Kuchar is seeking his first PGA TOUR victory since the 2002 Honda Classic. His best finish this year was a fifth-place tie at the Memorial Tournament in June.
"It'll certainly depend on the weather. I know there's a lot of good players up there close to the top, and this course, if it plays anything like it did today, it's going to take another 5 or 6-under par to win. So you just have to keep the gas pedal down, just go after some birdies," Kuchar said.
Piercy is trying to become the first rookie to win on the PGA Tour this season. The 30-year-old Las Vegas native has two top-10 finishes this year.
"I've put myself in position to win at least ... I mean I've driven it awesome this week," Piercy said. "You know, the last group on Sunday, there's pressures that go with that ... I think the more that you put yourself there, the better you're able to deal with it."
Piercy birdied the 550-yard, par-5 fifth hole and followed with three consecutive birdies on holes Nos 8, 9 and 10 and added another on 12.
Trailing Kuchar through most of the round, Piercy finally snared a share of the lead with a birdie on the 15th hole. Piercy had a chance to take the lead for himself, but missed a 36-foot putt for eagle on the final hole and ended up settling for par after missing a short birdie putt.
Kuchar birdied No. 2 to start his scoring. He added another birdie on the sixth hole to tie Taylor for the lead and then birdied No. 8 to briefly claim the top of the leaderboard for himself. Kuchar added two more quick birdies after making the turn, but could only manage par on his final six holes.
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The par-5 fifth hole was the easiest with a Saturday scoring average of 4.695.
The par-3 11th hole was the toughest with a Saturday scoring average of 3.080.INSIDE THE ROPES WITH THE PGA TOUR NETWORK
PGA TOUR Network correspondent Bob Stevens offers these observations from Saturday's action. Listen to PGA TOUR Live coverage on XM 146/SIRIUS 209 or right here at PGATOUR.COM.
Matt Kuchar is the third-best scrambler on the PGA TOUR this year, and he has scrambled for par on 11 of his 13 missed greens this week. But he told me the numbers are a little better for him and probably everyone else this week because of the players being able to clean and replace their shots that land in the soggy roughs, even on a gorgeous Saturday. Kuchar admitted there'd have been some bogeys on his clean card in the third round without the lift, clean and place rule in effect for the third straight day, but he figures most of the other players have taken advantage of the rule as well.
Scott Piercy might be one of those players. The long-driving rookie hasn't made a bogey in 47 holes now, since his seventh hole in the opening round. Don't expect Piercy to wilt under the pressure of his first-ever Sunday lead, either. The Las Vegas native won $2 million in the Ultimate Game a couple years back, part of that money put up by his own backers. Now that's pressure.
Many of us expeced another rookie, Leif Olson, to fade after three-putting his second hole early Saturday. He admitted to me that nerves made him blank out and he had no idea how the first putt from 30-plus feet would roll, leaving it more than 10 feet short. But he bounced back from the three-jack (his only bogey of the day) to birdie the fifth, seventh and eighth holes on the way to a 4-under 68 that put him right where he told me he wanted to be at the end of the round -- close enough to have a chance on Sunday. Olson's best finish on TOUR is 36th at the RBC Canadian Open.
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