Viktor Hovland rose to the sole lead after a terrific eight-under third round in the Hero World Challenge at Albany here.
Hovland, despite maintaining that he is not playing at his best, went three shots clear of second placed Scottie Scheffler. His excellent putting game came to the fore, as he carded 10 birdies on the day.
“I missed probably like a 10-footer on the first hole and lipped out. I kind of thought here we go again, but after that it was a lot of putts that went in. You need that on a day like today when the winds are down, and you can be a little bit more aggressive. That’s the only way you can make that many birdies, so that was a lot of fun,” Hovland said.
Scheffler made a clean six-under to stay in the hunt. A tournament win here can make Scheffler the World No. 1.
Scheffler had trouble with mud balls. “Who’s good at those (playing mud balls)? You pretty much have no idea what the golf ball is going to do. It’s not something that I would practice at home just because it’s not something that I believe should happen on the golf course,” Scheffler said.
Justin Thomas made a bogey free 66 and was tied third with Cameron Young (68). After making a birdie the 10th hole, Young held the lead by two shots. Young then dropped a shot each on Par-5s, 11th and 15th to fall down the leaderboard.
Kevin Kisner made a hole-in-one on the 12th hole — the lone bright spot for the American who sits at the bottom of the leaderboard.
The scores (top five)
(The author is in Nassau on invitation from Hero MotoCorp)
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