Patrick Rodgers made up for a double bogey with a five-point eagle two holes later and took the lead after the third round Saturday of the Barracuda Championship in Truckee, Calif.
Rodgers finished the day with plus-8 points for 34 total, one better than second-round leader Ryan Gerrard (plus-3 on Saturday) and three more than third-place Akshay Bhatia (plus-17 on Saturday; 31 total) on a tightly bunched leaderboard.
The tournament at Tahoe Mountain Club’s Old Greenwood course is the only PGA Tour event that uses the Modified Stableford scoring format. The highest score wins, with points awarded for double eagles (eight), eagles (five) and birdies (two). Pars are worth zero points, while bogeys are minus-1 and double bogeys or worse are minus-3 points.
Rodgers entered the day in second place at 26 points. He gained two points on the front nine, with birdies at Nos. 2 and 8, and back-to-back bogeys at Nos. 5-6.
He dropped three points with a double bogey at the par-4 No. 10, at 525 yards ranked as the second-toughest hole for the third round. An errant tee shot led to a penalty, a drop and six total strokes.
After a par on No. 11, Rodgers gained five points with his short eagle putt after a fine approach shot from the fairway of the 546-yard, par-5 No. 12 (ranked second-easiest hole on the day).
Birdies on Nos. 16 and 18, both par-4 holes, got Rodgers to plus-8 for the round.
“It was a day of resilience, for sure,” Rodgers said. “I shot myself in the foot more than once today, especially in this format. I missed a couple of really tiny putts on the front nine. Even, other than those, missed a few opportunities. Then made a double on 10.
“I was really super proud of the way that I was resilient and turned the round around and knew there was still a lot of points to be had. The eagle on 12 was huge and birdieing two of the last three was great to be in a good position going into tomorrow.”
Gerrard didn’t help his cause by opening with a bogey at No. 1, and consecutive bogeys at Nos. 10-11. He birdied Nos. 6, 12 and 13.
Big movers were Bhatia, up 29 spots to third with a best round of the day at plus-17, and fifth-place Joel Dahmen, rising 34 spots after a plus-16 to get to 29 points for three rounds.
Bhatia carded one eagle and six birdies in a bogey-free round. Dahmen, who is one point behind fourth-place Beau Hossler (30 points), notched eight birdies and 10 pars.
Defending champion Chez Reavie, who won with 43 points last year, is tied for 21st at 22 following a 7 on Saturday.
–Field Level Media
