03 March, 2019: Wyndham Clark zoomed to the top of the leaderboard midway through his third round at The Honda Classic. India’s Anirban Lahiri tied for nineteenth place after third round on Saturday.
Anirban scored one birdie and two bogeys to finish with one-over-71 on day three and lying at T19 with 2-under-208 total.
Vijay Singh‘s last PGA TOUR victory in 2008. His only win at The Honda Classic was in 1999, on a course that he couldn’t remember. And he arrived at PGA National a few days ago wondering if his game is still good enough for him to be competitive with the younger generation.
So far, he’s got to like what he’s seeing.
And he’ll have a shot Sunday at making history.
Singh — who turned 56 on Feb. 22 — has a chance to become the oldest winner ever on the PGA TOUR. His round of 5-under 65 on Saturday put him at 6 under for the week, one shot behind leader Wyndham Clark.
They’ll be in the final pairing Sunday. Singh has been a pro longer than the 25-year-old Clark has been alive.
“It would be great,” Singh said when asked what a win would mean at his age. “I’ve worked pretty hard. I’m physically quite capable of doing it. Mentally, I’m going to go out there and see how my mind works. If I just don’t let anything interfere, I think I can do it.”
There have been seven players to win on the PGA TOUR after their 50th birthday, the oldest Sam Snead at 52 years, 10 months, 8 days in the 1965 Greater Greensboro Open. Singh will be eight days removed from his 56th birthday Sunday.
“He’s been one of the game’s best,” said Rickie Fowler, who was alone in fifth at 5 under following his round of 66. “He’s a ball-striker. He’s not as long as he used to be, but on this golf course you don’t necessarily have to be long. It’s about getting the ball in the fairway and hitting your lines and hitting numbers. You don’t necessarily have to go out and do anything special.”
Singh is one of three players tied for second at 6 under, along with Keith Mitchell and Kyoung-Hoon Lee. Unlike Clark, Singh has been there plenty of times on Sunday; after all, he has 38 career PGA TOUR wins, won the FedExCup in 2008 and already has been enshrined in the World Golf Hall of Fame.
His last TOUR victory was 11 years ago – specifically, 3,835 days ago — when he won the first two events of the FedExCup Playoffs. If he can pull off the win Sunday, he would replace Sam Snead (age 52) as the oldest winner in TOUR history.
Source: PGA Tour
