Shane Lowry is tied for the lead with one round to go at Cognizant Classic

The final group was Bud Cauley, Austin Eckroat and Garrick Higgo. Cauley started his third round on 11 under, and both Eckroat & Higgo 10 under. Shane Lowry’s playing partners for day three were CT Pan and Andrew Novak. Lowry played four holes in three under to tie the lead with Cauley on 11 under. A birdie at the third hole was good enough for Cauley to take an early lead on 12 under. Cauley had company at the top of leaderboard on 12 under due to Eckroat achieving birdies at hole two and three.

Cauley dropped back to nine under after three bogeys in a row at the fourth, fifth and sixth hole. Eckroat returned to 11 under after a bogey at the fifth hole. After six holes Eckroat and Lowry were joint leaders on 11 under. Lowry shot a front nine of three under which included an extraordinary par at the eight hole. At the halfway stage of day three Eckroat and Lowry were still tied first on 11 under.

Lowry made his fourth birdie of day three at the 10th hole to reach 12 under. Eckroat joined Lowry at the top of leaderboard on 12 under after a birdie at the par five 10th hole. Eckroat had the lead on his own at 12 under after a bogey from Lowry at the 13th hole. Eckroat made an excellent birdie at 13 to stretch his lead over Lowry to two shots. Eckroat returned to 12 under after dropping a shot at 14. Lowry hit a spectacular iron shot and held his birdie putt at 16 to tie the lead on 12 under.

David Skinns made it a three-way tie at the top of leaderboard on 12 under after a birdie at 16. A beautiful bunker shot as Lowry finishes with a birdie to shoot 66. Skinns was extremely lucky that his second shot didn’t find a penalty area at 18 and was able to finish with a birdie to shoot 66. Eckroat finished his round with a birdie to make it a three-way tie at the top of leaderboard. Lowry, Skinns and Eckroat will all start day four on 13 under.

Min Woo Lee started his third round on five under. Lee made seven birdies in 16 holes to reach 10 under. Lee played 17 and 18 in level par to shoot an impressive round of 66. Victor Perez was on nine under after 36 holes of Cognizant Classic. Perez shot a front nine of one over which included a double bogey at the third hole. Perez started his back nine with three birdies in five holes to reach 11 under. The French native finished his round with a bogey to shoot 70.

Jacob Bridgeman shot an impressive round of 65. Martin Laird played brillantly on day three to shoot 66. Lee, Laird, Perez, Kevin Yu and Bridgeman are all tied fourth on 10 under. Novak and Pan are in a tie for ninth on nine under.

Rickie Fowler played his third round with Byeong-hun An and Tyson Alexander. Fowler started his third round on four under. Fowler advanced to five under after an excellent shot from 97 yards at the fourth hole. Fowler played holes five to nine in one under to shoot 33. Fowler’s back nine of two under included three birdies and one bogey. Fowler shot a round of 67 and is tied 11th on eight under.

Rory McIlroy played his third round with Cameron Young and Jake Knapp. McIlroy started his third round on eight under and three shots behind 36 hole leader Cauley. McIlroy’s front nine of one over included one bogey and eight pars. Four-time major champion made his first birdie of day three at the 10th hole to reach eight under. McIlroy moves up the leaderboard to 10 under after two excellent birdies at 12 and 13.

The Bear Trap got the better of McIlroy as he played 15, 16 and 17 in four over. Three-time FedEx Cup champion finished with a birdie to shoot a disappointing round of 72. McIlroy is capable of shooting a low final round but needs to tidy up his iron game. McIlroy is tied 27th on seven under.

At the SDC Championship Tom McKibbin shot a third round of one under. McKibbin will start day four on six under and five shots behind joint leaders Connor Syne and Dan Brown. Leona Maguire shot a third round of three over at HSBC Women’s World Championship. Maguire will start the final round on six over and 16 shots behind leader Ayaka Furue. It would be great if Maguire could finish with an under par round. Joaquin Niemann takes a two-shot lead over Charl Schwartzel into the final round of LIV Tour event in Saudi Arabia.