Mark Hubbard carded a flawless 65 on Saturday that featured a run of five birdies from the 11th to take a one-shot lead into the final day of the Sanderson Farms Championship.
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“It was great. I hit my irons great again. I feel like I actually did a better job with that today in terms of just leaving myself more makeable putts. I’ve been hitting it close all week, but a lot of them have been kind of in tough spots, downhill, downgrain. That little stretch I went on, pretty much every putt was just dead straight up the hill, so that was really nice.”
“[Last week] my daughter accidentally knocked off a kitchen knife off the counter and stabbed me in the foot, so I had a hole in my foot this whole week, and I didn’t get to practice at all last week, so I was just kind of coming here trying to get ready for Vegas to be honest.
“I think that probably has a lot to do with expectations being low. That being said, I felt incredible about my game for the last six, seven months, so I’m just kind of trying to go with it and keep those expectations low and just try and hit good golf shots.”
The American has played in over 160 events on the PGA Tour without winning and this is his first time holding the 54-hole lead.
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Overnight leader Mackenzie Hughes of Canada birdied the 18th to narrow the gap with Hubbard. He carded a 68 and lies in second place at 14-under.
“I felt like I let one get away on 17, made a bad swing, kind of had a little distraction there on the tee, so that was unfortunate,” said Hughes. “But I knew coming up 18 that that was going to be a big hole for me for tomorrow, and making a 3 there was huge. It keeps me within striking distance of Mark, and he’s been playing great, so it’ll be a tough battle tomorrow.
“I hit a lot of really nice shots. I think I was happy with kind of the way I responded to some adversity. I three-putted the 2nd hole and then came back with birdie on 3. I bogeyed 17, rebounded on 18 with a birdie.
“Those are the kind of things that when you’re doing those, you kind of have a little bit of a feather in your cap, if you will, just because you feel like your attitude is in the right place to bounce back. But yeah, managed the game really nicely today and hit some nice iron shots, but going to need to just be a hair sharper tomorrow to get it done.”
American Scott Stallings made his first bogey of the tournament at the 16th and another at the 18th and closed with a 68 for a share of third place at 12-under alongside South African Garrick Higgo (68).
