Patrick Rodgers made and eagle at the par-5 12th, four birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey at the par-4 10th for eight points on Saturday to take the lead of the Barracuda Championship with a total of 34 points.
“It was a day of resilience, for sure. I shot myself in the foot more than once today, especially in this format. I missed a couple of really tiny putts on the front nine. Even, other than those, missed a few opportunities. Then made a double on 10.
“I was really super proud of the way that I was resilient and turned the round around and knew there was still a lot of points to be had. The eagle on 12 was huge and birdieing two of the last three was great to be in a good position going into tomorrow.
“I felt like I was really close to having a great day. My tee shot on 10 got a bad break and I’m a few points from having a really, really solid round. I thought the golf course played a little bit more tricky today. But I’m loving the way that I’m driving it. I’m giving myself tons of opportunities to score. A lot of birdie and eagle looks. In this format I’m going to have to do the same tomorrow.”
Rodgers seeks a first career PGA Tour title in his 246th Tour start.
Overnight leader Ryan Gerard made three birdies and three bogeys to add three points to his tally and moved down into second place with 33 points.
Gerard is playing as a Special Temporary Member this season and must earn as many or more points as No. 125 in the final 2022-23 FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List to earn full status. He currently has 251 points, which would fall between Nos. 129 and 130.
“I didn’t hit it very well at all today. I didn’t really make too many putts besides the one on 13, I think. So just a lot of a grind out there today. Course got pretty tough, pretty firm. Greens got really bumpy towards the end, which is going to happen in the afternoon. So just really tried to stay patient, kept myself in it, even though I didn’t really have my best game or anything near it.
“So looking forward to just hopefully playing a little bit better tomorrow and kind of seeing a few more go in and we’ll see how it shakes out.”
Akshay Bhatia gained 17 points with an eagle at the par-5 6th and six birdies for a total of 31 points.
Beau Hossler lies in fourth place with 30 points after adding eight more with five birdies and two bogeys.
Joel Dahmen completes the all-American top-5, after gaining 16 points with eight birdies for a total of 29.
Scoring
The Barracuda Championship utilizes the Modified Stableford scoring format, the first PGA Tour event to use the format since The International in 2006. Players are allocated points based on the number of strokes taken at each hole with the goal of achieving the highest overall score.
Albatross +8
Eagle +5
Birdie +2
Par 0
Bogey -1
Double bogey or worse -3
