Norway’s Viktor Hovland made three birdies and one bogeys for a 2-under  69 on Saturday to take a share of the lead at 7-under at the Valspar Championship.

He entered the week off three missed cuts and made his third cut of the season, but first in a tournament featuring a 36-hole cut(T36/The Sentry, T22/AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am).

“I’m happy with the score,” said Hovland. “There’s a lot of good. Still a lot of feels like saving a lot of shots, but they’re going fairly straight, so it’s okay. They’re all in play and when I got out of position I think I solved the problems pretty well.

“I think this type of golf course really fits me right now. It’s not like you have to bomb the drivers everywhere, it’s more of a positioning golf course. I do feel like I can hit some nice iron shots that end up close to the hole, because even though I haven’t been swinging it all that great my stats with the irons have been pretty decent the last few weeks. So at a golf course like this I still feel like I can give myself a lot of looks for birdie.”

A win on Sunday would be Hovland’s seventh on the PGA Tour in 120 starts. He has recorded two top-10s in 21 starts since his last win at the 2023 Tour Championship, 3rd at the 2024 PGA Championship and T2 at the 2024 FedEx St. Jude Championship.

Hovland holds his fifth career 54-hole lead/co-lead on Tour and is 3-for-4 in converting to victory, most recently at the 2023 Tour Championship.

Nico Echavarria signed for a  66 to take his share of the lead. He was one of only three players with a bogey-free third round.

“This course just, a loose swing are, you’ll pay and those two double bogeys yesterday, they were just bad swings off the tee,” said Echavarria. “I had good range session after the round. It was pretty late but I hit maybe 30, 40 balls. I’m not going to say I found it, but it felt right, which is always good after a such a bad back nine to feel good when you go to sleep with your game.

“[Today] I gave myself a lot of looks. I was leaving a couple birdie putts short on front nine. I got the speed right on the back nine. Made a lot of good putts coming in. I think the birdie on 11 was huge for me. Overall very solid round.”

The Colombian player has won twice in 69 previous starts on Tour, at the 2023 Puerto Rico Open and the 2024 Baycurrent Classic. He holds his fourth career 54-hole lead/co-lead on Tour and is 2-for-3 in converting to victory.

Overnight leader Jacob Bridgeman of the United States made five birdies and four bogeys for a 70 to retain a share of the lead.

Bridgeman is looking for his first PGA Tour title in his 40th start. He holds the 54-hole lead/co-lead for first time on Tour. His previous best finish was T2 at the 2025 Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches.

“I had a lot of fun today. I was navigating a lot of the course. I seemed to find some spots that I had never seen before, so that was fun. I scrambled well.

“The wind was swirling. I think with the start of the day we were at northwest and then it went more towards west. So it was kind of tough to trust that it was northwest and it might have moved to west there was some uncertainty there that I think created the mistakes late for guys.

“I feel very comfortable when I get around the hole. I’m reading the greens well, I’m hitting my putts where I’m looking, I struggled a little bit late with the speed kind of with the shadows coming down over the green, but yeah, I feel are very comfortable over the ball.”

American PGA Tour rookie Ricky Castillo lies in solo fourth place at 6-under after posting a 68. He is in search of his first title in his 10th start. His best finish to date was T15 at the 2025 Farmers Insurance Open.

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