Gainesville (USA): Troy Merritt fired a tournament record 10-under par 61 Saturday to share the PGA Quicken Loans National lead with Kevin Chappell while Tiger Woods struggled and fell out of contention.
Merritt, a 29-year-old American ranked 180th in the world, birdied the first five holes and finished with 11 birdies against a lone bogey in the third round at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club.
That left Merritt level with countryman Chappell atop the leaderboard on 14-under 199 after 54 holes with US star Rickie Fowler one stroke back.
Fowler is coming off wins at the Players Championship in May and the Scottish Open three weeks ago while Merritt and Chappell each seek their first PGA title.
“I’m hitting the ball great,” Chappell said. “Shoot the lowest score tomorrow and I win. That's the goal,” he added.
The old tournament record of 62 was shared by Americans Hunter Mahan and Anthony Kim from 2009 at Congressional Country Club and Nick Watney from 2011 at Aroniminik.
Tournament host Woods sprayed shots all day on his way to a 74 to stand on 208, sharing 42nd after starting the day level fifth. “Basically it was a fight all day. Fought through it the best I could. I was hitting the ball left on the range warming up. Couldn’t quite get comfortable,” Woods said.
