PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic – Chris Stroud had a premonition a low round was coming, he just didn’t realize how soon.

Stroud shot an 8-under-par 64 Saturday at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship to move into second place. It was his lowest round this season, and the lowest on TOUR since the 2018 RBC Canadian Open, when he shot an opening-round 65.

He told his caddie two days ago how nice he had been playing of late, but had yet to bust out for a low score. That changed Saturday.

“I did it today,” he said. “Crazy.”

Stroud credited the work he’s been putting in the last couple of weeks for his third-round 64, which included no bogeys.

Stroud almost chipped in three holes in a row on his front nine and had, for the most part, a stress-free round. He called it a dream round.

“You want to play that way every day,” he said. “We wish golf was that easy.”

Stroud heads into Sunday’s finale just one shot back of the lead and said Saturday’s 64 was a big confidence booster. He’s had two top-10’s so far season (T7 – Waste Management Phoenix Open, and T10 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am) and described 2018-19 up to this point as very solid.

After hurting his knee last August, he then hurt his shoulder in September and has been battling those two injuries ever since.

It was a tough fall, he admitted (he missed two cuts and had to withdraw from the Mayakoba Golf Classic). He said he’s feeling about 95 percent these days.

“I'm doing everything I can to keep myself healthy and that's all I can do. I'm 37 and it's my 12th year out here. I've been doing it a long time,” he said. “The swing is pretty tough on your body, but I'm doing everything I can to make sure I'm healthy and that's all I can do.”

Before starting the 2019 portion of the season, he said he had a big meeting with his team and they laid out a 260-day plan with a focus on getting into The TOUR Championship.

He said his goal was to get one percent better every day, and wanted to give himself 10 chances to win tournaments this season.

“If I give myself 10 chances, they're going to fall in my lap eventually,” he said. “I used to pursue wins and try to go get them, but you can't do that, you've just got to let them fall in your lap.”

An 8-under score Saturday will certainly help the cause, however, and Stroud said he’s going to go for 20-under par tomorrow and see where the chips fall.

“I know if I get to 20,” he said, “I’m going to be hard to catch.”