Of the top 29 players on the leaderboard, only eight are at par or
worse early in Saturday’s third round. Three of those eight
are the trio of rookies – Jhonattan Vegas, William McGirt and
Brendan Steele – who were grabbing headlines during the first
two rounds. Vegas, who had 14 birdies and an eagle to earn shares
of the overnight lead after each of the first two rounds, is at 11
under and 1 over through five holes Saturday at TPC Summerlin.
McGirt, who shared the first round lead with Vegas, birdied No. 7
to get back to even par for his round while Steele opened with a
bogey and has added five consecutive pars since then. Those two
rookies are tied at 10 under, four shots behind leader Kevin Na.
The bright side for this trio is that they’ve still got the
back nine ahead, which they’ve played at a combined total of
22 under this week.