Jordan Spieth moves closer to ending trophy drought

American leads chasing pack by two strokes heading into the final round at Pebble Beach

Jordan Spieth leads heading into the final round at Pebble Beach. Photograph: Michael Fiala/EPA
Jordan Spieth leads heading into the final round at Pebble Beach. Photograph: Michael Fiala/EPA

Paul Casey remained in contention in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am after finishing the third round just three shots back from Jordan Spieth.

Amid testing, windy conditions that made low scoring difficult, Casey followed his opening rounds of 68 and 67 with a one-under 71 to go to 10 under for the tournament.

American Spieth — seeking his first win since the 2017 British Open at Royal Birkdale — maintained his second round lead by also shooting a 71.

This left him two shots ahead of a group of five players at 11 under, including Scotland’s Russell Knox, who shot three birdies in a bogey-free 69.

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Australia’s Jason Day is among the quartet sharing seventh place including Casey, on a day in which the lowest round was a 67.

Casey had only one blunder, but that was a double-bogey five sandwiched between two birdies at the fourth and sixth. He made a birdie three at the 11th alongside eight pars on his homeward nine.

Spieth had three birdies against one bogey on his front nine, stumbled with bogeys at the 10th, 12th and 14th, but recovered in spectacular fashion — holing out with an eight-iron from 160 yards for an eagle two on the 16th.

Collated third round scores & totals in the USPGA Tour AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (USA unless stated, Par 72):

203 Jordan Spieth 65 67 71

205 Daniel Berger 67 66 72, Patrick Cantlay 62 73 70, Tom Hoge 67 70 68, Russell Knox (Sco) 66 70 69, Nate Lashley 65 72 68

206 Paul Casey (Eng) 68 67 71, Jason Day (Aus) 69 69 68, Maverick McNealy 68 69 69, Brian Stuard 66 71 69

207 Will Gordon 66 73 68, Max Homa 69 70 68

208 Henrik Norlander (Swe) 64 70 74, Kevin Streelman 69 72 67, Cameron Tringale 67 72 69

209 Akshay Bhatia 64 73 72, Jason Dufner 68 71 70, Charley Hoffman 69 72 68, Tom Lewis (Eng) 66 69 74

210 Cameron Davis (Aus) 74 67 69, Beau Hossler 72 70 68, Cameron Percy (Aus) 67 70 73, Scott Stallings 69 71 70 Tim Wilkinson (Nzl) 67 74 69

211 Sam Burns 72 70 69, Jim Furyk 71 69 71, Brian Gay 70 72 69, Brian Harman 67 74 70, Troy Merritt 71 69 71, Ryan Moore 68 73 70, Matthew NeSmith 74 67 70, John Senden (Aus) 70 69 72, Vaughn Taylor 67 73 71

212 Doug Ghim 69 72 71, Matt Jones (Aus) 67 72 73, Chris Kirk 69 73 70, Hank Lebioda 70 70 72, Scott Piercy 69 74 69, Chez Reavie 74 67 71, Brendan Steele 69 72 71, Nick Taylor (Can) 69 71 72, Michael Thompson 67 74 71, Vincent Whaley 68 71 73

213 Scott Brown 69 70 74, Sebastian Cappelen (Den) 75 65 73, Branden Grace (Rsa) 71 69 73, Mark Hubbard 66 74 73, Pat Perez 69 72 72, Kyle Stanley 70 70 73, Josh Teater 69 74 70

214 Rob Oppenheim 72 70 72, Peter Uihlein 69 72 73

215 Bronson Burgoon 68 72 75, Patton Kizzire 69 70 76, Ben Taylor (Eng) 68 72 75, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 69 70 76

216 Chengtsung Pan (Tai) 70 72 74, Wes Roach 71 71 74,

217 Ryan Armour 70 73 74, Joel Dahmen 71 71 75, Sung-Hoon Kang (Kor) 73 68 76, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) 72 71 74

218 Andrew Putnam 72 70 76, Will Zalatoris 69 74 75

219 Joseph Bramlett 73 70 76, Scott Harrington 72 71 76, Zack Sucher 72 71 76