David Toms fired a 71 Saturday to sit alone atop the leaderboard at the Mitsubishi Electric Classic in Duluth, Ga.
It was a far cry from Toms’ round of 65 on Friday, but still better than his first-round co-leader Ken Duke, who shot 73 to sit alone in second at 6-under.
Toms will take a two-shot lead over Duke into Sunday’s final round, sitting at 8-under-par 136.
Ernie Els fired a 68 to vault 28 spots up the leaderboard into a five-way tie for third at 4-under, four shots back.
Jay Haas nailed a hole-in-one en route to a 69 and is one of the five players tied for third.
Toms carded three birdies against two bogeys at TPC Sugarloaf. He said the key Saturday was “survival.”
“I knew it was going to be a tough day,” Toms said. “Cooler weather, when you get this age your body kind of hurts on a day like today if you have anything going on at all. … But in general, if you would have told me I could have had an under-par round of some kind before I started the round today, I probably would have taken it. So I shot 1 under par, wasn’t a bad day, but I’ll have to play a lot better tomorrow.”
Haas also played himself into contention with a boost from his ace on No. 11.
“At impact my first thought was, ‘All right, I got it over the water,’ but I looked up, it was right at it, a beautiful shot really and just excited,” Haas said. “I thought this is going to be close. Really couldn’t see it go in. It was quite a thrill.”
–Field Level Media