Nate Lashley feels good after Saturday 65
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Tyler McCumber makes birdie on No. 7 at Corales Puntacana
Nate Lashley feels good at Corales Golf Course.
He proved that Saturday.
Lashley, who won the 2017 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship when it was a Korn Ferry Tour event, fired a bogey-free 7-under-par 65 Saturday to move into the top five late in the afternoon.
He’s looking for his second PGA TOUR win after capturing the Rocket Mortgage Classic last summer.
“Anytime you win a tournament on a course, you feel comfortable, you feel confident,” said Lashley. “It's one of those courses that is kind of a second-shot course and I feel like that's a strength of my game, getting on the green and making some putts.”
Lashley said Saturday’s 65 was solid from tee-to-green. He’s now in a position to recreate some magic from three years ago in the final round.
“It's just one of those rounds you come out, it's the way you want to play,” he said. “You want to hit fairways, get it on the green and when you have chances, make the birdies putts and I did that today.
“When I'm hitting my irons well, I feel like on a course like this I'm going to have a chance to finish well.”
Lashley made a key par save on the difficult par-4 18th.
The tee was all the way back for the third round and the hole, a dogleg right around the ocean, measured 501 yards on the card. Lashley tried to hit his drive over the fairway bunker and ended up with a poor lie and had to punch up to the green. He made an 18-foot putt to save par.
Lashley was 5-for-5 in scrambling on the day, which he said was another important factor for him moving up the leaderboard Saturday.
“When you can get up and down and save those pars or save the birdies when you're up around par 5s, that's huge. That's where you turn in a 7-under round or go to a 3- or 4-under round. That's a big difference when you get up and down 5 out of 5 times,” said Lashley. “So that's when you have some great scores and hopefully can continue that tomorrow.”
Fellow Corales winners Dominic Bozzelli and Brice Garnett also found the weekend.
Garnett sits at 4-under through three rounds. Bozzelli was inside the top-15 on the leaderboard before three-putting the 18th green to finish at 1-under for the day. Bozzelli is 8-under for the tournament.