A two-under-par 70 saw Shane Lowry make ground on the leaderboard in the third round of the Cadillac Championship at Doral, but it continued to be the Cameron Young show and the New Yorker leads by six.
Lowry, who sat tied for 61st in the 72-man field after a level-par 72 and a three-over 75, bogeyed two of his opening six holes before finding his feet and responding with back-to-back birdies on seven and eight and then another brace on 10 and 11.
Another birdie on 16 got him back to level-par for the week, before a dropped shot on the tricky 17th dropped him back to +1 overall and to -2 on the day. He now sits tied for 51st heading into the final round in what is his last competitive start before the PGA Championship at Aronimink.
Cameron Young also shot a two-under-par 70, but with rounds of 64 and 67 preceding it, the American sits six shots clear of the trio of Scottie Scheffler, Si Woo Kim and Kristoffer Reitan.
Young entered the day with a five-stroke lead over Nick Taylor, Jordan Spieth and Alex Smalley, and gave hope that he’d come back to the field when he found the water with his second shot and bogeyed the par-5 opening hole but he responded with two birdies on the front nine to make the turn at -14 overall.
He made two more birdies on the back – 11 and 15 – but dropped a shot in between, but ultimately saw the lead he had at the start of the day extended by one and, having played alongside Scheffler in each of the first two rounds, he’ll square off against him again on Sunday with Kim also joining the final group.
“I think today was kind of a good test run of how tomorrow will be,” Young said. “I’m sure it will not be as easy as I want it to be. Sounds like the weather’s not going to be great. It will be a fight from the beginning and just looking to execute the way that I did for the most part today. Just keep it in front of me and try to make some putts.”
With the conditions playing their most challenging on Saturday and similar forecast for Sunday, Young feels that it plays into his favour.
“I think I tend to play well at difficult golf courses, difficult setups, difficult conditions,” he said. “This is all of those things. I think it plays into my hands a little bit. Mentally it’s a little easier for me when the scoring is not so low. Yeah, just feel like I’ve done my job well the last few days.”
Scheffler admitted that the tournament is Young’s to lose.
“Yeah, the tournament’s in his hands right now,” he said. “I can go out and have a really good round, and if he has another really good round he’s going to be a tough guy to catch. All I can do is go out and try and have a great round and see where that leaves me.”
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