June 12, 2016: Daniel Berger is showing great poise under pressure. He held up well on Saturday to retain a handy three stroke lead walking into the final round after overcoming a mid-round loss of concentration. Berger posted 69, moving to 10-under 200 (67-64-69). Arjun Atwal has also remained consistently good this week – shooting one over 71 in the third round to be lying T46.
There are three men tied in at second – D A Points, Steve Stricker and Phil Mickelson are all in chase for victory on Sunday.
Berger though is looking to build on a solid 2015, when he was rookie of the year and placed second at the BMW Championship and Honda Classic. If he can pull it off on Sunday, it will be his maiden PGA TOUR victory.
“I just have to be myself,” asserted Berger. “I feel like when you’re kind of in this position you can kind of try to do things that normally you wouldn’t do, and (I’ve) just got to have fun out there and be myself and see what happens.”
Berger seemed to have trouble being himself though at the par-3 14th hole. He sank his tee shot in the water to set up a double bogey. But he recovered his poise quickly to fire birdies at 16 and 17 to offset the damage.
“My caddie is telling me to aim 25 feet left of that and for some reason I’m looking at the flag. Probably just a little bit of a mental error. It’s hot out here, it can happen,” explained Berger. “I’m happy with the way I rebounded.”
St Jude Classic: Arjun Atwal T46
Atwal began with a birdie at the par-5 third hole after chipping to within four feet of the flag with his third shot. But Atwal found the intermediate at the next hole to surrender a bogey. He made the turn at even for the round.
Arjun looked good for par at the 10th after his second shot helped him nicely to the green. But he three putted from 22 feet to go over par.
At the 12th again, Arjun battled the rough to the left and an intermediate to the right as he conceded the third bogey of the round.
He played well from there though, adding a second birdie at the 15th hole to end the day with a 71. Arjun is lying T46 at 1-over par 211 (72-68-71).
