Napa [US], September 14 : Akshay Bhatia overcame a disastrous triple bogey on the Par-4 seventh hole, but still managed a 2-under 70 in the third round of the Procore Championship, the first event of the Fall season. Bhatia, who was T-37 after the second round, rose to T-30, while another Indian American, Sahith Theegala, had a mixed day, which included two double bogeys and a close eagle in his 73. He slipped from T-14 to T-46.
Bhatia had six birdies against one bogey and a triple bogey, while Theegala had three birdies, an eagle against four bogeys and two double bogeys. He started the day with three bogeys and ended with an eagle on an up-and-down day.
Ben Griffin (70 and 16-under) hung onto a one-shot lead and is chased by World No. 1 amateur Jackson Koivun, who already has a PGA TOUR card locked up when he turns pro, and World No. 1 professional Scottie Scheffler.
Scheffler, who had a double bogey, still shot an 8-under 64 and
Koivun shot 68 and is 15-under, one shot behind Griffin, while Scheffler is 14-under.
Griffin made his first bogey of the tournament on the final hole and had to settle for a 2-under 70, narrowing his lead to one shot over Koivun and two shots over Scheffler. Griffin was at 16-under 200.
Scheffler missed only two greens and had only one big blunder, on the 14th. His tee shot drifted into soft, thick rough. He came up just short of the green and then tried to clip a wedge close to a tight pin. But it came out soft and into a bad lie in a deep bunker, he blasted out to 15 feet and took two putts for a double bogey.
Scheffler answered with three birdies on his last four holes, two of them par 5s, the other birdie a 7-iron to 6 feet on the par-3 17th. He rose from T-14 to third.
Koivun did not get off to a great start. He had two bogeys earlier and was starting to slide down the leaderboard when he bounced back with a birdie on the par-3 eighth, and a tough shot out of a fairway bunker to 20 feet for a stress-free shot, important at the time to avoid another setback.
And then he was 5 under on the back nine, including an eagle for the second straight day on the par-5 12th, this one with a 40-foot putt.
He has a chance to become the second amateur in as many years to win on the PGA TOUR, following Nick Dunlap at The American Express last year.
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