Patrick Cantlay fired a Saturday-best 60 to climb into a tie for the lead with Tom Kim after three rounds of the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas.
Kim carded a solid 62 himself at TPC Summerlin to join Cantlay at 19-under 194 as the pair hold a three-stroke lead heading into Sunday’s final round.
Second-round leader Mito Pereira (third-round 67) and Mattew NeSmith (63) are tied for third at 16 under. South Koreans Sungjae Im (63) and Seonghyeon Kim (64) are T5, four shots off the lead.
Five players trail the leaders by five strokes, grouped in a tie for seventh.
Cantlay played a superb round, opening his round with four straight birdies en route to 11 on the day and turning in a clean card.
“I was really happy with today. I played great,” Cantlay said. “Had a bunch of looks and made most of them. … I hit good putts all day today. You can’t make every single one as much as you’d like to. I’m very happy with how I played, and I’m in a good spot going into tomorrow.”
Kim played bogey-free golf as well, recording just two birdies fewer than Cantlay. Kim birdied five of his last six holes.
“I took care of what I really needed to take care of on this golf course and just needing a good round to give myself a chance on Sunday really because I’m really happy with myself just keeping it tight,” said Kim, who added he wasn’t leaderboard-watching to see what Cantlay was doing.
“No, I just told myself let’s play my own game,” Kim said. “I accidentally took a glance at it, but I was kind of coming through a stretch of birdies, so I just told myself, ‘Well, let’s just kind of focus on what I need to do right now.'”
–Field Level Media
