Jim Furyk was one round away from ending the longest drought of his career after shooting a bogey-free four-under 67 on Saturday to build a three-shot lead at the Transitions Championship.
“I’m in a great position in the tournament,” Furyk said, who is trying to win for the first time since the 2007 Canadian Open. “I’ve got a three-shot lead. You kind of dictate what the other guys have to do.”
Furyk was at 11-under 202, with a strong group of contenders behind him.
Defending champion Retief Goosen birdied the last hole of a roller-coaster round that gave him a one-under 70, part of four-way tie for second. The others at eight-under 205 were two past champions at Innisbrook — K.J. Choi (67) and Carl Pettersson (70) — and Bubba Watson, who has never won on tour. He scrambled for a 70.
Padraig Harrington, a three-time major champion who hasn’t won since the 2008 PGA Championship, went 14 holes without a birdie to fall out of the lead, then dropped another shot on the 18th hole for a 72 that left him four shots behind.
Furyk is zero for 58 on the PGA Tour since his last victory. This is his first 54-hole lead since the Colonial nearly three years ago, when he lost in a playoff to Rory Sabbatini.
There have been times when he let tournaments get away down the stretch, and times when he was beaten, such as the Memorial last year when he was three shots better than everyone in the field except one guy — Tiger Woods — who won by a shot.
The few times when Furyk made a mistake, such as missing the green on the par-three fourth, he made up for it with his putting. Later in the warm afternoon, when he was giving himself so many birdie chances, he had to settle for par.
The turning point came early on the back nine.
Four players had at least a share of the lead at some point, and eight players were within range until Furyk hit a three-wood just left of the green on the par-five 11th and chipped to four feet for birdie.
On the next hole, he hit seven-iron to some 35 feet behind the flag, and poured in a long, slippery putt that broke sharply to the cup.
Suddenly, he was three shots clear and his prospects were looking up.
Not so for Pettersson, who closed out the front nine with consecutive bogeys, or Steve Stricker, who was tied for the lead until hitting his tee shot in the water on the par-three 13th and scrambling for bogey.
Stricker dropped another shot on a par three coming in for a 71, and wound up five shots behind.
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