Tony Finau fired a 68 on Saturday to maintain his four-stroke lead and match the 54-hole tournament record at the Cadence Bank Houston Open.
It was a busy day at Memorial Park Golf Course, where 65 players had to finish their second rounds in the morning after the second round was suspended Friday due to inclement weather.
Finau sits at 15-under-par 195, matching Curtis Strange’s mark through three rounds in 1980.
Finau leads England’s Ben Taylor by four strokes. Taylor shot a 5-under 65 to pull himself into contention. It was the low round of the day.
Countryman Justin Rose carded a 66 to vault 17 spots up the leaderboard and into a tie for third at 8 under, a distant seven shots back.
Finau staged a quiet round, carding just two birdies while turning in a clean card. His 68 followed 65 and 62 in the first two rounds.
“That was a really good round,” Finau said. “I think the score doesn’t say that, but I think I played better than yesterday. You know, yesterday I shot 62, but today that 68 I thought was pretty impressive for the conditions.”
Finau seeks fifth career tour win and his third consecutive season with a victory.
“I hit the driver as good as I’ve ever hit it,” Finau added. “Today I hit all 13 fairways, which is something I don’t think I’ve ever done on my career on the PGA Tour, hit every fairway. So that was super important and I was able to knock a couple birdies in because of that.”
Taylor posted six birdies against a bogey to at least put himself in position to get his first win on tour in his 45th start.
“We knew we had to stay very patient,” Taylor said. “You might be able to make a birdie or two, but you know there could be a hiccup around the corner. We made one bogey which was on the 10th and that was actually one of the easiest shots, it was in the middle of the fairway. We certainly stole a couple out there and we hit some great shots and we capitalized when we could and it was nice to steal one of the last two for 65.”
Rose is tied with Wyndham Clark (third-round 68) and Tyson Alexander (70) for third.
–Field Level Media
