RALEIGH: India’s Arjun Atwal had a marathon day in which he played 30 holes at the Rex Hospital Open to make up for a backlog as he first made the cut with a round of 68 and then added a 74 in the third round.
Beginning his third round soon after playing his 12 holes from the second round, Atwal, a former winner on the Korn Ferry Tour, held up fine for the first 10 holes with two birdies against two bogeys on Saturday.
Then he dropped three shots in last eight holes on 11th, 17th and 18th.
After 66-68 in the first two rounds, he was T-11, but by the end of the third round, he had dropped to T-54.
“It was tiring for sure.
These wheels need re-charging,” Atwal said.
Playing 29 holes today on a mountain! These 48 year old wheels need a charge!! ??‍? https://t.co/AzaF4bFksD— Arjun Atwal (@Arjunatwal) 1622907416000This is Atwal’s first event on any Tour since his start at Corales Puntacana on the PGA Tour at the end of March.
The field managed to complete the third round just before darkness and sharing the lead were German Stephan Jaeger (66-67-63), American Andrew Novak (61-71-64), and Chilean Mito Pereira (62-67-67) at 17-under each.
Each one is looking for a win that will secure the PGA card for them.
Three players are tied for the lead at 17-under par, and four more are within three strokes of the co-leaders… https://t.co/l9HACRVGUi— Korn Ferry Tour (@KornFerryTour) 1622947447000Jaeger, who has six Korn Ferry wins and already has two wins this season, can secure his PGA card with a win this week.
Novak, currently No.
19 in the Korn Ferry Tour points standings, needs a win, while Pereira, ranked No.
12 in the points standings, could settle for a three-way T3 finish and still cross the 1700-point threshold and lock up a PGA Tour card.