Min Woo Lee takes control of Houston Open with third-round 63
-17 M W Lee (Aus); -13 A Tosti (Arg); -12 R Fox (Aus), R Gerard (US), S Scheffler (US)
Selected others: -11 G Woodland (US); -9 R McIlroy (NI); -6 E Grillo; -5 H Hall (Eng), T Finau (US) -3 D Skinns (Eng)
Australia’s Min Woo Lee moved into a four-shot lead at the Houston Open courtesy of carding a 63 in the third round.
Lee’s round included seven birdies and no bogeys to put him on 17 under par – a 54-hole tournament record.
“Hopefully tomorrow is another good day,” said Lee. “Similar golf [to win]. Just got to play pretty steady off the tee.
“A couple shaky drives at the end but kind of regrouped and made it happen. Just keeping my head down and one shot at a time.”
Alejandro Tosti, of Argentina, shot a 65 and is in second place on 13 under.
Scottie Scheffler followed up his course record of 62 in the second round with a 69 and is on 12 under, along with Ryan Fox (65) and Ryan Gerard (68).
“Yesterday I holed a bunch of putts, today I feel like I couldn’t get the ball to go in the hole,” Scheffler said. “Feel like I hit a lot of good putts.
“There’s not really much you can do different out there. Try to shoot as low as possible today and I’m going to try to do the same thing tomorrow.”
Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy produced a round of 65, which included three birdies and an eagle, to move to nine under par.
“I played OK,” McIlroy said. “It was nice to get out there and play decent.
“Certainly didn’t have my best, but shot a decent round and hopefully another good one tomorrow.”