Nassau, Bahamas: Big-hitting Bubba Watson opened up a two-shot lead with a error-free nine-under 63 that only equalled a just set course record, but also provided the sole leader for the first time in the 2015 Hero World Challenge.
One shot behind the leader after the first and second days, Watson hit the perfect pitch on Saturday with seven birdies and an eagle and no bogeys to zoom from one behind the overnight leaders Jordan Spieth, Bill Haas and Jimmy Walker, to surge ahead of the new second place holder, Paul Casey, who had shot a new record of 63 only four groups before him. The 63s by the duo bettered the old course record of Adam Scott by two shots.
Watson was at 19-under 197, one short of the 54-hole tournament record Jordan Spieth, set last year at Isleworth in Orlando, Florida. Two behind him was Casey (66), who has not won since 2014. In the third place were Patrick Reed (66) and Chris Kirk, who after a fine 65 on second day added another 66 on third.
Jordan Spieth (68) and Bill Haas (68), who were among the trio sharing the lead after two rounds, slipped to tied fifth, while Walker (71) dropped from shared first to Tied-11th.
India’s Anirban Lahiri, making his debut at the Hero World Challenge, once again had a disappointing time on the greens. The 28-year-old From Bangalore, winner of the Malaysian Open and Hero Indian Open this year, never got going and finished with one-over 73, his first over par round of the week. It pegged him down at four-under 212 and he was tied 15th, and 15 shots behind Bubba Watson as the leaderboard was now very spread out in contrast to the first two days.
On Sunday, he plays with Justin Rose, who like Adam Scott, is a resident in Bahamas.
“I just could not get going the whole day, neither on front or back nines,” said Lahiri. “It was overall quite disappointing as I got off to a bad start and never got any momentum going.”
Lahiri had just one bogey on the front nine when he dropped a shot on fourth. “I got a mud ball on fourth (meaning mud was stuck on the ball, but he could not lift to clean it because it was not on the greens) and that lead to an errant approach shot. It resulted in a bogey,” said Lahiri, who had no birdies on the front stretch.
On the back nine, he did get birdies on 14 and 15th, but bogeys on 13th and 17th pulled him back and did not allow any recovery. He once again missed more than a few short putts. “Anyway I will try to finish strongly in the final round of the tournament, post which I will be taking off for sometime,” added Lahiri.
Bubba, a two-time Masters champion, almost did not make it to Hero World Challenge as he had not got his visa and papers for his daughter to come over to Bahamas. He was not in the original list but managed to get it closer to the event and then got a chance to make the field when Jason Day pulled out.
The highlight of Watson’s round was an eagle on par-4 fourth, where holed out from the fairway with a 7-Iron. He had seven other birdies, including on first and second and another on sixth, at which stage he was five-under through six holes. On the back nine he added four more birdies on 11th and 12th and again on 15th and 16th.
"As we're seeing, when there's no wind -- light wind -- we can score," Watson said. "We're all good players, don't get me wrong. We're all top 50 in the world. But with no wind, this golf course is a little bit easier to make birdies. Obviously, 20 mile-an-hour winds, this golf course becomes a beast."
Casey made nine birdies in his opening 13 holes, and then had to settle for par for a third straight day on the reachable par-4 14th.
Spieth said, "I shot 68 and got lapped. It was a day where you really needed to shoot lower. Par for the course is 5 under, especially in these conditions."
Tiger Woods, the tournament host, followed the final group through the front nine and occasionally gave his friend and TV reporter Notah Begay a lift.
