Billy Horschel
Dublin, Ohio, June 5: Billy Horschel brought in a 7-under 65 to open up a five-shot lead at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday,
A year after Jon Rahm built a six-shot lead and then withdrew after the third round because of a positive COVID-19 test, Horschel looked to finish yhe job after a big lead.
Horschel made seven birdies and has gone 44 consecutive holes without a bogey on a course where the greens have been getting firm under more sunshine.
Horschel was at 13-under 203, five shots clear of Aaron Wise (69) and Cameron Smith (72). Horschel cared more about how he was playing — very well — than the size of his lead. He will be going for his seventh PGA TOUR victory.
India’s Anirban Lahiri missed the second round cut.
Daniel Berger had a 67 and six shots behind along with Jhonattan Vegas and former Open Champion Francesco Molinari, who hasn’t had a top-five finish since the 2019 Masters.
Smith started with a one-shot lead and ran into trouble immediately, with bogeys from the bunker on the first two holes. He played alongside Denny McCarthy, who on three occasions in the first hour was putting for birdie from closer than where Smith was putting for par.
It was a struggle for Smith to get back to even for the day, but by then, Horschel was starting to pull away from everybody.
Rory McIlroy started the third round just three shots out of the lead, but as everyone else around him was piling up birdies, McIlroy was stuck on pars. He didn’t make his first birdie until the 11th hole and shot 73 to fall nine shots behind.
Defending champion Patrick Cantlay began his round by pulling his tee shot into a stream and making double bogey. He atoned for that with a pair of eagles, finished with three straight par putts from outside 8 feet and shot 69. He was seven behind.
Tied with Berger were Francesco Molinari (70) and Jhonattan Vegas (71) at 7-under. The top Asian was KH Lee of South Korea who after a 75 was 4-under and tied 15th.
