Matt Kuchar and Colombian Camilo Villegas are tied for the lead after three rounds and have 18 holes remaining to settle matters at the World Wide Technology Championship at Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Kuchar shot 67 — despite a quadruple-bogey — and Villegas fired a 69 on Saturday to sit tied at 19-under par at El Cardonal at Diamante, the first Tiger Woods-designed course to be used at a PGA Tour event.
South African Erik van Rooyen posted a 66 to sit third at 18 under. Three players are tied for fourth at 17 under, including Canadian Mackenzie Hughes, who vaulted 23 spots up the leaderboard with a 9-under 63, the best round of the day.
Another five golfers are four shots off the lead T7.
Kuchar was 10-under for the day and eyeing a potential 59 when disaster struck on the par-4 15th. It started with an errant tee shot that he hooked into the tree line. He took a penalty and then struggled to get up and down twice, posting a quadruple-bogey 8. He followed up with a bogey on No. 16.
“This course has some trickiness to it,” Kuchar said. “That 15th hole is one I think we all have circled I think this could be a big number and for me it was today. Listen, it’s golf. Every hole has the same value, the same importance to it. … I’m pretty good at letting that stuff roll off my back. I let that one roll off my back and go try to play some good golf (Sunday).”
It wasn’t much easier for Villegas, who carded four bogeys on the day, including three on the front nine. He rebounded by posting five birdies coming in.
“Today was an interesting day, a little different than the first two,” Villegas said. “Putter wasn’t as hot, but I think overall it was positive. … Matt was kind of running away, but golf is weird and he came back to us. We’ll be back (Sunday), play good, keep staying aggressive. There’s a lot of low scores on this golf course, see what happens.”
Hughes turned in a clean card, going eagle-birdie-birdie to start his round. He finished with seven birdies for his round.
“The score, the score was nice,” Hughes said. “I haven’t had too many low ones like that this year, so to see some red numbers last couple of days has been nice. … I wasn’t quite as sharp as I was (Friday), but scored it really nicely.”
Villegas has not won on tour since 2014, while Kuchar’s last victory came in January 2019 at the Sony Open in Hawaii.
Saturday began with the resumption of the second round, which was suspended by darkness on Friday. Three golfers still had one hole left to complete before the third round could begin.
–Field Level Media
