Séamus Power is firmly in the hunt for his second PGA Tour title, after he shot a third round of 66 to sit two strokes off the lead heading into the final day of The American Express at La Quinta, California.
Moving day yielded two new leaders however as Frenchman Paul Barjon and Lee Hodges leapfrogged their way into the lead.
Both playing together on the Stadium Course, Hodges fired an eight-under 64 and Barjon 65 to share the lead at 18 under overall heading into Sunday’s final round. Hodges rose 11 spots while Barjon jumped seven spots.
Tom Hoge (68, La Quinta CC) sits alone in third one stroke back. Power (66, La Quinta CC) is alone in fourth at 16 under, two shots back.
Six players are bunched in a tie for fifth, three shots back at 15 under.
The 36-hole leader, Patrick Cantlay, dropped 10 spots to a share of 11th after a 72.
Hodges posted a clean round with six birdies on his back nine en route to eight for the round.
“It was a great day,” Hodges said. “Hit the ball really well, I know it was really nice to see some putts fall on that back nine. I think I made three nice putts in a row there from like 10 to 12. And then just kind of really hit some quality shots coming in to give myself some easy birdies.”
Barjon, also starting on the back nine on the Stadium Course, also carded eight birdies against one bogey on the par-three 17th.
Barjon will have a familiar face for the final 18 on Sunday.
“It was great playing with Lee again for the third day,” Barjon said. “He played really good the first day, really kind of set the tone by making pretty much everything he looked at on the green. So that’s always good to see and just kind of get inspired by that and trying to make as many putts as we could the last three days and we made quite a few, so we’re going to try to keep it going tomorrow.”
World No 1 Jon Rahm jumped 17 spots up the leaderboard to give himself an outside shot on Sunday. Rahm posted a 67 on the Stadium Course to sit in a T15 at 13 under, five shots back.
Everyone will play the Stadium Course on Sunday.
Collated third round scores & totals in the USPGA Tour The American Express, PGA West (Stadium), La Quinta, California, United States of America
(USA unless stated, Par 72):
198 Paul Barjon (Fra) 66 67 65, Lee Hodges 62 72 64
199 Tom Hoge 65 66 68
200 Séamus Power (Irl) 65 69 66
201 Lanto Griffin 67 65 69, Harry Higgs 66 68 67, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 67 67 67, Hudson Swafford 70 65 66, Harold Varner III 68 66 67, Cameron Young 64 68 69
202 Patrick Cantlay 62 68 72, Denny McCarthy 67 67 68, Sahith Theegala 72 62 68, Will Zalatoris 71 61 70
203 Wyndham Clark 65 69 69, Jon Rahm (Spa) 66 70 67, Davis Riley 66 69 68
204 Joseph Bramlett 65 67 72, Lucas Glover 66 69 69, Brian Harman 67 70 67, David Lipsky 67 68 69, Roger Sloan (Can) 66 67 71, Adam Svensson (Can) 69 67 68
205 Charles Howell III 69 68 68, Zach Johnson 67 66 72, Si Woo Kim (Kor) 68 68 69, Patton Kizzire 67 67 71, Greyson Sigg 65 67 73, Brandt Snedeker 65 69 71, Martin Trainer 66 71 68
206 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 66 72 68, Sung Jae Im (Kor) 69 67 70, Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor) 64 71 71, Luke List 70 70 66, Andrew Putnam 70 66 70, Aaron Rai (Eng) 67 67 72, Sam Ryder 65 68 73, Alex Smalley 67 70 69
207 Nick Hardy 68 71 68, Russell Henley 67 70 70, JT Poston 69 69 69, Patrick Rodgers 70 68 69, Camilo Villegas (Col) 69 68 70, Jared Wolfe 70 65 72
208 Abraham Ancer (Mex) 67 71 70, Kevin Chappell 67 69 72, Jason Dufner 70 67 71, Brice Garnett 68 71 69, Doug Ghim 67 68 73, Michael Gligic (Can) 68 68 72, Adam Hadwin (Can) 68 72 68, Anirban Lahiri (Ind) 69 67 72, Hank Lebioda 68 69 71, Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 66 69 73, Taylor Moore 66 70 72, Justin Rose (Eng) 68 73 67, Sepp Straka (Aut) 67 69 72, Vincent Whaley 70 64 74
209 Bronson Burgoon 66 70 73, Jason Day (Aus) 67 75 67, Tony Finau 72 70 67, Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 71 65 73, Trey Mullinax 70 68 71, Seung-Yul Noh (Kor) 68 71 70, Henrik Norlander (Swe) 69 67 73, Patrick Reed 71 70 68, Scottie Scheffler 69 70 70, JJ Spaun 75 67 67, Nick Taylor (Can) 69 69 71, Stephen Stallings Jr 69 67 73
