Patrick Rodgers birdied two of his final three holes to take a slender lead into the final day of the Barracuda Championship as he targets his first title on the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR.
The American picked up eight points in the Modified Stableford Scoring format as he made an eagle, four birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey to hold a one-point lead over countryman Ryan Gerard at Tahoe Mountain Club in Truckee, California.
After missing his last three consecutive cuts including at last week’s co-sanctioned Genesis Scottish Open, Rodgers was particularly pleased with his mentality as he recovered from a double bogey at the tenth to finish strongly and reach 34 points.
"It was a day of resilience, for sure," he said. "I shot myself in the foot more than once today, especially in this format.
"I missed a couple of really tiny putts on the front nine. Even, other than those, missed a few opportunities.
"Then made a double on 10. I was really super proud of the way that I was resilient and turned the round around and knew there was still a lot of points to be had.
"The eagle on 12 was huge and birdieing two of the last three was great to be in a good position going into tomorrow."
Six of the last seven winners of the Barracuda Championship have been first-time PGA TOUR winners and Rodgers is intent on maintaining a positive mindset on Sunday.
He added: “I thought the golf course played a little bit trickier today.
“But I'm loving the way that I'm driving it. I'm giving myself tons of opportunities to score. A lot of birdie and eagle looks. In this format I'm going to have to do the same tomorrow.”
Second-round leader Gerard, who is also seeking a breakthrough win, mixed three birdies with three bogeys for a three-point round.
“Course got pretty tough, pretty firm,” he reflected. “Greens got really bumpy towards the end, which is going to happen in the afternoon.
“So just really tried to stay patient, kept myself in it, even though I didn't really have my best game or anything near it.
“So looking forward to just hopefully playing a little bit better tomorrow and kind of seeing a few more go in and we'll see how it shakes out.”
Akshay Bhatia sits third on the leaderboard – three points adrift of the lead – after an eight-point day, featuring six birdies and an eagle in a bogey-free round.
James Morrison is the leading DP World Tour member in a tie for seventh place with 27 points, with last week’s Barbasol Championship runner-up Nathan Kimsey and Johannes Veerman a point further adrift in a tie for tenth.
