Berger and Lahiri. File Pic.
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Feb 27: Daniel Berger playing at the PGA National which is barely 15 minutes from his house where his mother cooks food for him, opened up a five shot lead with just one more round to go in the Honda Classic.
Following up on a brace of 65s, he added a 69 and is now 11-under 199 and his closest rivals, a bunch of four with Shane Lowry, Sepp Straka, Kurt Kitayama and Chris Kirk are all at 6-under 204. The leading Asians are KH Lee (69) and CT Pan (71) at 1-over.
Anirban Lahiri, who also lived close to the PGA National, missed the cut but will be back in action next week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Lodge.
Berger tied the largest 54-hole lead in tournament history and has the largest on TOUR since Jon Rahm at the 2021 Memorial Tournament. He is seeking his fifth career PGA TOUR win while Lowry is seeking his third, Kirk his second and Kitayama are looking for their first TOUR title.
Berger began the day with a three-shot lead and ended the day with a five-shot advantage after his round of 1-under 69.
Lowry (67), Kirk (71), Straka (69) and first-round leader Kitayama (71) were tied for second at 6 under.
Only 13 of the 73 players who made the cut shot below par Saturday. Lowry had the day’s best round — and that was just 3 under.
Berger saved some great pars and his only mistake came on the last, his only bogey of the day.
Sponsor exemption Andrew Kozan came back in the morning to play the final of his second round. He had stopped play on the par-5 18th fairway Friday night when it became dark. He needed par to make the cut, which he did the next morning. It was his first PGA Tour cut.
Kozan teed off alone in the third round and finished with 2-under 68. He has now moved to T-19.
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