The weekend has arrived at The Players Championship with four out of the six Canadians in the field – Corey Conners, Taylor Pendrith, Nick Taylor, and PGA Tour rookie Sudarshan Yellamaraju – still competing at TPC Sawgrass for a share of the massive $25 million purse set to be handed out on Sunday.
Conners, the low Canadian on the week so far, began Saturday’s action four back of leader Ludvig Aberg following a scintillating round on Friday, but did not make the charge he was seeking on moving day.
The Listowel, Ont. played a steady even-par round to stay at 8-under for the week, but has now fallen five shots back of Aberg heading into the final round.
Conners put himself behind the eight-ball early with a double bogey coming on the par-3 third.
A poor tee shot left him with a difficult lie in the bunker for his second, and he was unable to get any action on the ensuing chip as the ball ended up rolling well past the hole and almost off of the green.
He would putt his way back up the hill, but missed a five footer to save bogey to go to 2-over on the day early.
Conners would rebound quickly and undo the damage with two birdies over his next four holes, but would give one back after another poor tee shot on the par-3 eighth led to a bogey.
He would make another bogey on the par-4 10th after a wayward approach left him scrambling out of the greenside rough, and moved back to 2-over on the day.
The two-time PGA Tour winner got back on track with a birdie at 13, and put down pars over his next three holes.
He then headed to the island green on 17, where he managed to stay dry and leave himself with a 10-footer for birdie, which he weighted perfectly to get back to even.
A long putt for par on 18 secured his third-round 72, and now heads into Sunday tied with five others for fourth on the leaderboard.
Winnipeg’s Yellamaraju, who was in danger of missing the weekend during the second round, got off to a red-hot start on Saturday, playing his first six holes at 4-under with birdies at the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth.
He would add another red number to his scorecard at the 11th after making the turn, and then record one final birdie at the par-five 16th.
Yellemaraju signed for a 6-under 66, the second best score on course in the third round, to make a sizeable jump up the leaderboard into a tie for 19th after finishing one shot inside the cut line on Friday.
After making par for 14 straight holes on Friday, Abbotsford, B.C.’s Nick Taylor started his third round with three straight pars before knocking in birdies on the 4th and 7th.
He opened the back nine with a bogey, however, before rebounding with another birdie on the par-five 11th. To close out his round, Taylor bogeyed once again on the 14th and birdied on 16 to finish 1-under on the day and 2-under for the week.
After shooting 3-under on Friday, Pendrith started his day with a long string of pars before dropping a shot on the par-3 8th.
To open the back nine, the Richmond, Hill, Ont. native eagled 11 before and carding birdies on 12 and 13, but gave back shots on 14, 16, and 18 to spoil what was shaping up to be a promising round. He finished Saturday at even-par and 1-under for the tournament, good for a share of 43rd place.
Tracking the Canadians
Follow the Canadians’ third-round scores from TPC Sawgrass below:
Pos.PlayerTOTTHRUR3T4Corey Conners-8FET19Sudarshan Yellamaraju-5F-6T37Nick Taylor-2F-2T43Taylor Pendrith-1FECUTMackenzie Hughes+7–CUTA.J. Ewart+9–
Current leader: Ludvig Aberg, -13