Trace Crowe Leads by One with Wire-to-Wire Win in Sight

• Trace Crowe leads the Austin Championship by one shot after a third-round 71.
• Erik van Rooyen, Sami Välimäki and Chad Ramey share second place.
• Crowe holed a 44-foot bunker shot for birdie at the 17th.

Trace Crowe has led the Austin Championship presented by Compliance Solutions since his course-record 62 on Thursday. He finished birdie-birdie in cool, blustery conditions on Saturday to rescue a 1-under 71 on the Fazio Canyons Course at Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa.

Crowe is on 14-under, a shot clear of van Rooyen and Välimäki, who both shot 69, and Ramey, who shot 67. More wind is forecast for Sunday.

The 17th turned his round around. Into the wind on the 219-yard par-3, Crowe hit a 4-iron as low as he could and was happy to find the bunker with a clean lie. From 44 feet, he holed it.

“It was just sitting uphill, and it just came out perfect and went in,” Crowe said. “Me and my caddie both, we had a feeling I was going to make that.”

At the par-5 18th he chipped off a hard-pan lie left of the green to 8 feet and made the putt. He shares the most birdies of the week with Jeffrey Kang, on 20.

Full PGA Tour status on the line… And Trace Crowe holes it from the bunker for a share of the lead! Players outside the top 100 following next week’s RSM Classic will lose fully exempt status on Tour for 2027. Crowe currently sits at No. 117 in the #FedExCup Fall Standings. https://t.co/clobMvPHFs

— PGA Tour (@PGATour) November 14, 2026

What a first win would bring

This is Crowe’s 50th Tour start and his first 54-hole lead. His best finish is a share of third at the Bank of Utah Championship in October. He broke his wrist last year, spent four months in a cast and did not make his first start of 2026 until April.

Victory would bring a two-year exemption and a place in the Championship Series in 2028. Crowe would be the season’s fourth wire-to-wire winner, and the first since Wyndham Clark at the US Open. He would also be its 11th first-time winner. He arrived at No. 117 in the FedExCup Fall standings and is projected to be No. 63. After next week’s RSM Classic, the top 100 keep full cards.

“I’ve been doing this long enough to know that everyone’s really good and they’re just going to keep making birdies,” Crowe said. “My mindset tomorrow is to go attack the day and see what it gives, but just try to play the best I can and hopefully it come out on top.”

A crowded chase

Thirteen players are within three shots, and nine of them have never won on Tour. Ramey is No. 136 in the Fall standings, van Rooyen is No. 140, and a win would bring either of them a two-year exemption. Ramey leads the field in Strokes Gained: Putting. Välimäki is exempt through 2027 and defends his RSM title next week.

Max Greyserman and Ben Kohles shot 69 and are two back. Greyserman has five runner-up finishes on Tour. Eight more players are on 11-under. They include Austin Smotherman, who won the Bank of Utah and Butterfield Bermuda championships since early October. He is trying to become the first player since Dustin Johnson in 2017 to win three straight starts.

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