Champ keeps up consistency, moves into lead following three rounds at the Safeway Open
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
In order to win the Safeway Open at Silverado, a good round in Saturday’s third round is a must.
On the other hand, it would be catastrophic to have a bad round on Saturday.
However, in the end, there was a little bit of both.
The person who ended up having a fantastic third round was Sacramento native Cameron Champ. He’ll enter Sunday’s final round in the lead.
He entered the day three strokes off the lead, but he quickly vaulted himself to the top of the leaderboard when he birdied holes 4, 6, 10, 12 and 14. He also hit 14 greens in regulation on the day.
“I’m extremely pleased,” Champ said of his round where he shot a 67. “Not to make a bogey on the scorecard today, mission is accomplished. I’m hitting it well, I’m giving myself so many chances. I think tomorrow just going to not play as much break, I did that a lot today. Yeah, I’m certainly happy with the position I’m in.”
After shooting a 69 on Thursday and a 66 on Friday, Nick Taylor also looked like a possible contender when the weekend portion of the tournament came. The 31-year-old jumped up the leaderboard thanks to birdies on the 3rd, 4th, 8th, 9th, 12th, and 14th holes. He also bogeyed the second and 15th holes. He ended the day in a tie for second.
“It was fine,” Taylor said of his round. “I was just saying that the first 12 holes I probably got every shot I could out of the round and then the last six I couldn’t get any out of the round.”
Sebastian Munoz also put himself within striking distance come Sunday. After shooting a 71 on Thursday, he had back-to-back rounds where he shot 67, which put him into a tie for second as well.
“We played pretty much great golf,” Munoz said. “Just a little fluke on 15, but the rest of the day I’m hitting the ball pretty solid. I’m making the putts, so I’m feeling great.”
He birdied the 1st, 6th, 9th, 12th, 16th, and 18th holes to go along with a bogey on the 15th. Munoz also hit 14 greens in regulation on the day. Munoz will be looking for his second win in as many weeks after winning last week’s Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Mississippi.
“I mean, just trying to do the same thing I did today, trying to give myself a chance on the back nine and see what happens,” Munoz added.
Then, of course, there were the players who had rough rounds.
One of them would be Bryson DeChambeau. Rounds of 68 and 64 put him in the lead halfway through, but he ended up giving some strokes back on Saturday. Part of the problem was that he only hit nine of 16 greens in regulation. Another one was that he bogeyed holes 3 and 10, with a double-bogey on the 13th hole.
There are also times where one bad hole can ruin a good round. That was the case for Brian Gay. Up until the tenth hole, he was sitting near the top of the leaderboard at nine-under for the tournament. However, on the 10th hole, he had a quadruple-bogey to kill his round. He still ended up hitting 10 greens in regulation for the day.
The final round will begin on Sunday morning at approximately 8:30 a.m. Golf Channel’s coverage will begin at 3 p.m. and go till 6 p.m or whenever the tournament
