Dean Wilson of the US fired his third consecutive round of five-under 65 to seize a four-stroke lead after Saturday’s third round of the Canadian Open, but Sweden’s Carl Pettersson stole the show.
Pettersson put himself in the title hunt after firing a course-record 60 to claim a share of second.
Wilson opened and closed the front nine with birdies, the latter one sparking a run of three birdies in a row. He followed a birdie at 15 with a bogey at 16, but finished with a birdie to stretch his advantage.
Wilson stood on 15-under 195 with Pettersson, Bob Estes of the US and South Africa’s Tim Clark sharing second on 199. South African Trevor Immelman was in a group with four others another stroke off the pace.
Clark birdied the par-three third and sixth holes, stumbled with a bogey at seven, but answered with a birdie at the par-five 15th, only to bogey the 18th.
Wilson, 40, won the 2006 International, but needed a sponsor exemption to gain a spot in the field after having slid to 52nd in the world rankings and he hung tough during heavy rain.
Pettersson broke the Canadian Open record with his 10-under round at St George’s, missing a USPGA Tour record-tying round of 59 when his 30-foot birdie putt from the edge of the green lipped out the left side of the cup.
“I hit a pretty good six-iron in there, but the wind sort of got it,” Pettersson said. “You can’t go past the hole because then you got no chance and it was actually a difficult putt to get to the hole because it was very steep uphill.
“I hit a good putt. I told myself: ‘You cannot leave this short. You’ve got to give this a chance,’ and I hit a solid putt and it was just hovering right on the left side ... With six inches less pace it probably would have gone in,” he said.
Four men, all Americans, have fired a 59 in USPGA history, the most recent being Paul Goydos on July 8 at the John Deere Classic.
The others are Al Geiberger at the 1977 Memphis Classic, Chip Beck at the 1991 Las Vegas Invitational and David Duval at the 1999 Bob Hope Classic.
Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa fired a 58 on the Japan Tour in May to win The Crowns with the lowest score on a top-level tour.
Pettersson, seeking his fourth USPGA title, was not unhappy with his total, but wished his last putt had dropped home.
“Obviously, I’m happy with the round, but I would have loved to have seen that putt go in, but that’s the way it goes,” Pettersson said.
Playing in the third group of the day after making the cut by a stroke, the European fired two eagles, seven birdies and a bogey.
“I thought I was going to miss the cut,” Pettersson said. “We got finished with the round and it was right on the borderline. Me and Jay Williamson were actually watching the computer to see if we were going to make the cut and had a few Canadian beers in there. That settled me down. Maybe that’s what did it.”
■SCANDINAVIAN MASTERS
AFP, STOCKHOLM
South Africa’s Open champion Louis Oosthuizen was well-placed to make history on Saturday after three rounds of the Scandinavian Masters left him just a shot off the lead.
No player has ever followed an Open triumph with a European Tour win the following weekend, but Oosthuizen, who dropped a shot at the last hole, is within sight of that landmark as he stalks joint-leaders Richard Johnson of Sweden and South Korea’s K.J. Choi.
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