[This is an update to an earlier post on Round 1 and 2 results at Peachtree.]
Round 3: Pin at Location 1
Wind Calm/Type-A and Course Conditions Soft
Without Seeding: With winds calm and the course soft, Round 3, or moving day, saw driving accuracy improve from the previous round (57.1% vs. 60.5%), while greens in regulation declined somewhat (64.8% vs. 62.8%).
With the Pin set at Location 1, which is often only a few paces from the green’s edge, putts increased from the previous round by half a stroke (28.9 vs. 28.4) on average. What matters most is score, which was 0.8 strokes higher on average than in Round 2. The putting difference explained over half of the increase.
Round 3 featured solid performances by Dan Berger, Corey Conners, and Viktor Hovland, each finishing the day at 3 under par. All three players are excellent ball strikers.
Next, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Louis Oosthuizen, Rory McIlroy, and Billy Horschel finished 2 under par. Four other players finished at 1 under par. In all, 13 players shot under par in Round 3.
Making the highlight reel, Dan Berger sank a 71-foot putt on the long, uphill No. 4 and holed out for an eagle on the mid-length, yet uphill No. 16.
With Seeding: Patrick Cantlay (-13) recovered his form with a 2 under par performance, which created some separation for him on the leaderboard. Bryson DeChambeau (-5) lost his short game and fell from second place into a 3-way tie for 7th.
Meanwhile, Xander Schauffele (-9), 2021 Gold Medal winner in the Olympics, climbed into second place by carding his third straight sub-70 round (68, 67, and 68). Dan Berger’s heroics assisted his climb up the leaderboard to third place (at -7).
The PDF below summaries the first three days’ results. Click the pop-out control (at upper right) to view the entire document.