Shane Lowry goes into the locker room at The Bear’s Club, a club in southeast Florida about 20 minutes from PGA National, most days for lunch when he’s at home. And there is Jack Nicklaus – more often than not – playing cards with other members in the afternoons.

Lowry, with his big Irish smile, says he’s not good enough to be in that card game. But after an 8-under 63 Saturday at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches, he may – finally – be good enough to win his adopted hometown event, one that Nicklaus has long been involved with.

Lowry, who has finished in the top five at this event three of the last four years, has found himself tied for the lead through 54 holes alongside Austin Smotherman at 13 under after the third round was completed in the early afternoon Saturday. Tee times were moved up for the third round due to the potential for inclement weather in the West Palm Beach area.

The 63 by Lowry was his lowest career round at PGA National, a place where he’s had an awful lot of success at over the last number of years. In fact, Lowry has played better than anyone on the PGA TOUR in the state of Florida over the last half-decade. With a big smile, Lowry said the reason he sits in such a position on TOUR is maybe that Scottie Scheffler doesn’t play that much in the Sunshine State.

But, for real this time, playing in Florida is just something he’s gotten better at with time.

“When I moved here at first, I hated Florida golf, the grain, Bermuda (grass). Everything about it was tricky for me,” Lowry said. “Just from living down here and spending time down here, I’ve become better at it.”

Lowry opened with a 5-under 30 through his first nine holes and added another birdie on No. 10 for good measure. He added circles on his scorecard on Nos. 17 and 18 to finish up his day.

“Everything went pretty well, especially early on. I hit the ball in the fairway a lot yesterday, and I missed a few fairways early today, but I holed a few nice putts at the start. Then I started hitting the ball really well and giving myself lots of chances and converted a few and I felt like it was just a really nice, solid round of golf,” Lowry said. “Birdieing the last two was kind of the icing on the cake.”

This marks Lowry’s first 54-hole lead since the 2025 Truist Championship, where he would go on to finish tied for second – one of four top-10 results on TOUR last season. Lowry’s last victory on TOUR came alongside Rory McIlroy at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in 2024.

Smotherman, meanwhile, is hunting for his maiden TOUR title. He won twice on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2025 to re-earn PGA TOUR status, but everything so far this week has been uncharted territory. He had a bit more of an up-and-down day Saturday as compared to his two previous rounds at PGA National – he made five birdies but also had three bogeys, including back-to-back squares on Nos. 6 and 7 – and while his usually impressive ball-striking has remained sharp (he sits fifth in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and third in SG: Approach to Green so far this week) he’s been buoyed by a great putting effort.

With a third child on the way in about a month, Smotherman knows there is no time like the present for him to take the biggest moment of his career across the finish line.

“A bit of chills still hearing that,” Smotherman said when he was formally told after his round that he was tied for the lead heading into a Sunday on the PGA TOUR. “Most excited for tomorrow. Hitting golf shots in front of all these fans and hearing people yelling your name and refocusing and trying to do it again on the next shot – it’s a fun challenge. Start of the week, this is what you kind of prep and play for."

“Not that you expect to be there, but when you are there, you know you’re ready and I feel like I am ready.”

Lowry and Smotherman will be grouped together for Sunday’s closer with Nico Echavarria and Taylor Moore a shot back of the final twosome at 12 under, and Jimmy Stanger at 11 under rounding out the top five.

Lowry is, of course, a major champion and the second-highest-ranked player in the field this week per the Official World Golf Ranking. Smotherman is about 100 spots lower in the OWGR and has never been inside the top five after 54 holes in 81 previous TOUR starts – let alone tied for the lead.

But this is golf and with a tight leaderboard and watery trouble around almost every corner at PGA National, who knows what is in store for Sunday.

“I get to put my name next to his and go battle him all day,” Smotherman said. “That's probably the thing right there that I need to probably step back and realize is that it's not me versus him or anything like that. Looking at the leaderboard, it's so jam-packed.”

Lowry said after his round that he never feels like one “deserves” to win on the PGA TOUR – shots need to be hit and putts need to be rolled in and the mental gymnastics need to be dialled in clean for 72 grueling holes. But Lowry has been around the lead plenty on TOUR over the last few years and he would like nothing more than to tilt a trophy at the event about 20 minutes from his home.

“I’m up there where I want to be,” Lowry said. “I’ve had a few chances to win this tournament and hopefully I can convert it tomorrow.”

And maybe the Cognizant Classic trophy will be a good enough piece to flash to Jack Nicklaus to let him into that card game at his home club.