Keith Mitchell shined on the back nine to card a 7-under 65 on Saturday to move into the lead after three rounds of action at the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Miss.
Mitchell, who recorded a 64 on Friday to share low-round honors with Beau Hossler, also managed to post the best score of the third round, collecting seven birdies while playing bogey-free golf. Five of those birdies came after the turn, and Mitchell now sits 20-under 196 for the tournament.
At the par-4 17th, Mitchell sank a 37-foot putt for birdie before putting his second shot at the par-4 18th about 7 feet from the hole.
He then drained the ensuing putt, using the strong finish to take a lead into Sunday’s fourth and final round.
“I definitely hit a few bad shots, and when I did, I just made sure I got it back in play and made par and tried to capitalize,” Mitchell said.
“The putt on 17 was just a huge bonus. Then I got an accident lie on 18 and hit a great shot. All in all, it started kind of slow, and the last 10 holes I was just able to capitalize a little bit more.”
Hossler is in second, one shot off the lead.
He fired a 68 on Saturday at the Country Club of Jackson.
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After a rough double bogey at No. 12, Hossler settled down and went birdie-birdie-par-birdie from Nos. 14 through 17.
He added three birdies on the front nine. “Other than (No. 12), it was pretty flawless,” Hossler said of his third round.
“Was in play pretty good off the tee. Maybe didn’t drive it quite as well as I did the first two rounds, but was able to get a lot of looks at birdie and took care of the par-5s and the drivable holes, which is what I talked about yesterday being really important out here.”
Taiwan’s Kevin Yu (66 on Saturday) birdied two of his final three holes to grab sole possession of third and avoid a logjam at fourth, where Bud Cauley (67), Lucas Glover (68) and Jacob Bridgeman (69) sit in a three-way tie at 16-under.
Cauley was on fire early in his round, starting off with a par before tallying four birdies in a row. “Played really well. Got off to a great start,” he said.
“Lost a little bit of momentum in kind of the middle of my round, but gave myself a bunch of good looks towards the end.”
A 71 dropped Daniel Berger into a tie for seventh with Michael Thorbjornsen (69) and Ryan Fox (68) of New Zealand.
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