The leader played the US Open at Winged Foot Golf Club. It was difficult. It was also helpful. “Big contrast from the US Open to here, obviously,” said Adam Long, who tied for 13th place. “That was just a mental grind. He was just trying to hit a fairway. You’re probably going to miss it, and then you try to get it up onto the green and try to make pars. Here, it’s a very different landscape, it’s more quite open. It seems very open coming from Winged Foot.” Here are three things to know after Saturday’s third round of the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship at Corales Golf Club in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
Long made 11 birdies last week. More than four rounds.
He had more than half that total in an eight-hole stretch on Saturday.
Long birdied 7, 9, 10, 12, 13 and 14 en route to an eight-under-par 64, a total of 17-under and a two-shot lead over Hudson Swafford. Mackenzie Hughes is three shots back, Xinjun Zhang is four shots back and Nate Lashley and Sean O’Hair are five shots back.
“It was nice when those days are like this where you just feel the putter and just putt,” Long said. “It was nice. I wasn’t thinking about a lot of things. I was just trying to get everything done.”
Swafford, the second round leader, made few mistakes. He also made some birdies.
Swafford birdied the 4th and 8th and eagled the 7th, then played the last nine holes at par for 3-under 69.
“I had my chances, but nothing, I never got ahead of myself, I never really got frustrated, I just kept going,” he said. It was very good.”
Hughes started badly and finished strong.
He bogeyed the first, then birdied the 3rd, 4th, 7th, 15th, 16th and 17th for a 5-under-par 67. He was runner-up last year and is third after three rounds this year.
“Yeah, yeah, I didn’t have much to do today and I was watching Adam play amazing, so it was like I got hit by a semi, but I held on,” he said.
In total, nine players are six shots from the lead.
Zhang is four back after a 68; Lashley is five behind after a 65, as is O’Hair after a 70; and Anirban Lahiri, Tyler McCumber, Luke List and Justin Suh are six behind.