Day three of the Travelers Championship started out with benign weather around TPC River Highlands after storms last night. The early pairings had a chance to put a number down on moving day with soft receptive greens. All was sedate as the morning pairs went about their business. Then Cameron Young teed off and everything changed.
Young’s blistering start of five-under after four was only the beginning as the New Yorker would write his name into the history books as just the thirteenth player ever to card a sub-60 round on the PGA tour. Two eagles, seven birdies and no blots on his copybook saw Young card a round for the ages of 59 in the morning session on River Highlands.
Shane Lowry is right in the mix going into Sunday after his five-under Saturday round. Lowry would recover from a three-putt bogey on his opening hole with three birdies on both his outward and homeward nines to card a five-under 65 and he’s just four back and tied for seventh. After twice shooting 62 this season – one of those coming on Friday – he’s well placed for a Sunday charge and to hopefully put pressure on the leaders.
Seamus Power was among the early pairings and the Waterford man put on a show of his own on his front nine. A birdie on the second was followed by eagle on the par-5 sixth after he sank a 19-footer following two great shots. Power would trade two more birdies and bogeys to go three-under for the day and he sits on -6 for the tournament.
Akshay Bhatia had the best of the early knockings, with his three-under-through-seven move putting him into a share of the lead with 36-hole leader Kim. The young Korean recovered from a dropped shot on the par-4 fourth hole to bounce back with two consecutive birdies and was one-under for the day when the hooter sounded. The top 16 players including Lowry were separated by just three shots as they passed the time in the storm.
A near three-hour delay again gave time to reflect and it was Kim who would prove his leadership credentials with another five-under round. Kim sits one clear of Scottie Scheffler and Bhatia on -18, and two clear of Xander Schauffele and Sungjae Im who sit on -16.
“Actually, the wind kind of died down after the delay,” said Kim afterwards, “so it played — obviously the greens were really soft and fairways were soft and there’s no wind, so obviously there were a lot of birdies out there. I’m sure a lot of guys did, I didn’t really look at leaderboards, but when you get soft conditions out there it’s definitely gettable and I feel like I executed well enough to have a good round today.”
As the pack jostled for position and the storms were nearing, one man was out telling his story. Cameron Young was asked about how he ranks his round today: “It’s certainly pretty cool. It’s fun to have your name on a list that short. But there’s some full tournaments that I probably would rank above it in terms of just like overall achievement. I feel like one day doesn’t necessarily warrant like a crowning achievement of a career or — it’s certainly my high of the month. But, I mean, I’m sure I will pretty much try to forget by tomorrow and go through my routine and see what I can do tomorrow.”
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