Russell Henley carded a one under-par 69 on Saturday to secure a three-stroke lead at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Henley has led three times after 54 holes this season, although he is four years removed from his last PGA Tour victory - the 2017 Shell Houston Open. A three-time PGA Tour winner, Henley also is attempting to become the first wire-to-wire winner of the event since Brandt Snedeker in 2018.
Ireland's Seamus Power continued his slide after a promising opening round as he carded a two-over round of 72 to drop to one-under-par.
Henley highlighted his Saturday performance with a 33-foot putt for eagle on the par-5 15th hole at Sedgefield Country Club. He also had one birdie and two bogeys on Saturday after carding a 62 on Thursday and a 64 the following day.
“Yeah, I’m not always going to shoot 62 or 64. I feel thankful to be under par today,” Henley said. “I feel like mentally I was pretty tough considering how I was feeling. I was really doing a good job of committing to all my shots, but you’ve just got to hit fairways out here. And my bogey on 11 came from hitting the fairway, so just a little bit sloppy, but overall made some good decisions, made some really nice up-and-downs and I’m thankful for where I am.”
Henley’s 15-under-par 195 for the tournament is three strokes better than Tyler McCumber, who had four birdies during his bogey-free round to finish with a 66.
“Yeah, I’ve been playing great,” McCumber said. “Golf doesn’t always give you the results you want. You’ve got to stay in the process and I feel like I’ve been doing that pretty well and getting rewarded for it through the first three rounds this week, so taking that momentum into tomorrow.”
McCumber’s best finish was as a runner-up at the 2020 Corales Puntacana Championship.
Canadian Roger Sloan recorded his second straight 64 to find himself in a six-way tie for third place at 11-under for the tournament.
“I think in the first round I dusted off a few of those jitters and then I was just able to settle in the last few holes on Thursday,” Sloan said. “Yeah, I really like this golf course, I like a lot of the sight lines off the tee. These greens are so good, you just put the ball online and it’s going to go in the hole. It’s a great track.”
South African Branden Grace (64), Kevin Kisner (66), Kevin Na (67), Scott Piercy (69) and Slovak Rory Sabbatini (69) also sit at 11-under.
Sabbatini, who won a silver medal at the just-completed Tokyo Olympics, is bidding for his first PGA Tour victory since the 2011 Honda Classic. Once as high as No. 8 in the world, the 45-year-old has six career PGA Tour victories.
Australian Adam Scott (64) and England's Justin Rose (69) are part of six players tied at 10-under-par.
Collated third round scores and totals (USA unless stated, Par 72):
195 Russell Henley 62 64 69
198 Tyler McCumber 65 67 66
199 Branden Grace (Rsa) 66 69 64, Kevin Kisner 65 68 66, Kevin Na 68 64 67, Scott Piercy 64 66 69, Rory Sabbatini (Svk) 66 64 69, Roger Sloan (Can) 71 64 64
200 Tyler Duncan 69 62 69, Justin Rose (Eng) 66 65 69, Adam Scott (Aus) 66 70 64, Webb Simpson 65 65 70, Kevin Streelman 66 66 68, Hudson Swafford 64 69 67
201 Adam Hadwin (Can) 64 71 66, Sung Jae Im (Kor) 66 68 67, Sung-Hoon Kang (Kor) 64 69 68, Si Woo Kim (Kor) 66 68 67, Sebastian Munoz (Col) 66 67 68, Ben Taylor (Eng) 68 68 65, Brendon Todd 69 67 65, Will Zalatoris 68 68 65
202 John Augenstein 68 65 69, Harry Higgs 70 67 65, Chris Kirk 64 69 69, Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor) 67 68 67, Cameron Percy (Aus) 67 67 68
203 Byeong-Hun An (Kor) 69 66 68, Mackenzie Hughes (Can) 70 63 70, Anirban Lahiri (Ind) 67 69 67, Denny McCarthy 65 69 69, Chengtsung Pan (Tai) 68 69 66, Brian Stuard 65 66 72, Nick Taylor (Can) 65 71 67, Aaron Wise 66 70 67
204 Matt Kuchar 66 67 71, Alex Smalley 68 64 72, Sepp Straka (Aut) 66 71 67
205 Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) 66 68 71, Brice Garnett 69 68 68, Brian Gay 70 66 69, Beau Hossler 68 69 68, Mark Hubbard 67 70 68, Russell Knox (Sco) 74 63 68, Sam Ryder 68 65 72, Kevin Tway 66 71 68, Harold Varner III 67 67 71, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) 65 68 72, David Lingmerth (Swe) 68 67 70, Johnson Wagner 68 69 68
206 Jason Dufner 71 65 70, Tommy Fleetwood (Eng) 66 68 72, Chesson Hadley 68 69 69, Matt Jones (Aus) 69 68 69, Keith Mitchell 67 68 71, Rob Oppenheim 66 71 69, Camilo Villegas (Col) 68 67 71, Bubba Watson 67 69 70
207 Mark Anderson 66 71 70, Bronson Burgoon 65 68 74, James Hahn 68 67 72, Erik van Rooyen (Rsa) 65 69 73, Richy Werenski 67 70 70, Austin Eckroat 68 69 70
208 Michael Kim 67 69 72, Robert MacIntyre (Sco) 69 68 71
209 Michael Gligic (Can) 65 71 73, Andrew Landry 65 72 72, Seamus Power (Irl) 67 70 72
210 Nelson Ledesma (Arg) 69 67 74, Ben Martin 67 67 76
211 Chris Baker 67 70 74, Nate Lashley 68 68 75
213 Rafael Campos (Pur) 66 70 77
