Rookie Jake Knapp made 11 birdies to take the third-round lead at 19-under with a 63 in the Mexico Open as Matt Wallace’s challenge faded away.
“Struck it very similar to how I did the last couple days when I was able to get some more putts to fall. Would like to clean up a few of those bogeys on the back nine, but it was a great day.
“I kind of circled [the par-3s] this morning after looking at the pin locations and just felt like depending on where the tee was, I felt like they were going to match up for me pretty well and thought they were going to be pretty gettable, so wanted to make sure I kept in the back of my head that there was definitely going to be some good opportunities there.
“I don’t think I played the par 5s very well, but just haven’t really chipped it very well. Like we were kind of talking about, I feel like every time I missed the green this week I kind of ended up in a funky little lie or just kind of a weird chip.
“I’m not super worried about it, feel like I’m hitting good shots, I just haven’t ended up exactly where I’d like. But yeah, do our best to clean it up for tomorrow.”
Knapp had seven birdies as he carded a 63 to move to 19-under-par at Vidanta, four clear of fellow PGA Tour newcomer Sami Välimäki of Finland.
The American opened with a pair of birdies and added five more in six holes to reach the turn in 28.
Wallace had started the day alongside Knapp in a four-way tie for the lead, but the Englishman could only manage a level par 71 to finish the day eight strokes off the pace.
He was joined at 11-under par by Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre, who shot a 65 with four birdies topped off by an eagle at the 18th.
Canada’s Ben Silverman, Sweden’s Henrik Norlander and American Chan Kim were on 12-under-par, completing a top five without a win on the PGA Tour.
