Flourtown (USA), May 11 Akshay Bhatia rode a roller coaster at the end of which he had slid from a top 5 after two rounds to tied 16th at the end of the third round of the Truist Championship.
In blustery conditions, Bhatia shot 71 after the first two rounds of 63-70. He is now 6-under and tied 16th with one more round to go.
Austrian Sepp Straka shot a 4-under 66 and Irishman Shane Lowry had a 67 to share the lead heading into the final round. Straka started the round two strokes behind in the third round, he offset his only bogey with five birdies. Two of those came in the final four holes and he had a clutch par putt from 16 and a half feet at the 18th on the Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Wissahickon Course to finish at 14 under.
Aaron Rai (71) was tied 38th and Sahith Theegala struggled as she shot 8-over 78 and was 70th.
Bhatia had two birdies in the first three holes and then had a bogey-birdie on fourth and fifth. Then came a hat-trick of bogeys from seventh to the ninth as he turned in one-over 36. On the back nine, he had the 12th, 14th and the 15th and bogeyed the 13th, 17th and the 18th.
Lowry moved into a tie for the lead by matching Straka’s birdie on the downwind par-4 17th and will be paired with the 32-year-old Austrian on Sunday in the final round of the sixth Signature Event of the PGA Tour season.
Keith Mitchell, the leader after 18 and 36 holes, shot 1-over. He was 11 under with Justin Thomas, who charged up the leaderboard despite bogeys on the two par 5s in a 67. Hideki Matsuyama was another stroke back after a 63, the best score of the day.
Defending champion Rory McIlroy made an early move before spoiling a three-birdie run with consecutive bogeys. He had an uneventful back nine with one birdie and was 8-under after a 69, tied with Nick Taylor (67), Sam Burns (67), Sungjae Im (67) and Tony Finau (67).
Thomas, looking for a second win in as many starts after taking the RBC Heritage, birdied three of the final four holes on the front nine and added back-to-back birds on the back to move into contention.
McIlroy struggled throughout, hitting just three of 14 fairways. He had an uneventful back nine of 1 under and will start the final round five strokes behind the leaders in a bid to win in his first individual event since completing the career Grand Slam at the Masters last month.
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