Ben Griffin carded a bogey-free 66 on Saturday to stay in the lead by three shots at the Sanderson Farms Championship.
“I felt like [66] was a good goal, try to get three on each side. I knew it was going to be windy and I needed to make sure I missed it in the right spots. Felt like I left myself a lot of 20-, 30-footers, but it was on holes where I needed to do, so if I had missed it on the wrong side, I was going to be scrambling to try to make pars.
“Was very proud of myself the way I stuck to the game plan, and I missed a few tee shots on the back nine but was able to escape, and that’s always been one of the strengths of my career.
“As much as I want to be aggressive, I’ve learned on the PGA Tour you’ve got to be extremely disciplined. It’s fun when I mis-hit shots because it gives me the opportunity to pull off something creative, but it’s a lot more fun when you have stress-free golf, and I felt like I did a good job of that for probably 14, 15 holes today.”
At 20-under 196 Griffin equalled the championship 54-hole record (Steve Lowery/2000, Scott Stallings/2012).
He fell one stroke shy of his best 54-hole score on Tour, a 195 at the 2022 Butterfield Bermuda Championship where he also got his best finish in 36 starts on Tour (T3).
China’s Carl Yuan shot a 67 for a career-best 54-hole score of 199 and solo second place at 17-under.
Americans Scott Stallings (65) and Luke List (68) are tied in third at 16-under alongside Sweden’s Henrik Norlander (68).
