Taiwan’s C.T. Pan on Saturday opened and closed with back-to-back birdies to grab a two-stroke lead after Saturday’s third round of the US PGA Tour’s Canadian Open.
Two-time defending champion Rory McIlroy and England’s Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood charged into the hunt, but it was Pan, trying to end a four-year PGA win drought, who fired a six-under-par 66 to lead after 54 holes at Oakdale on 14-under 202.
Pan capped his second 66 in a row with birdie putts from just outside 10 feet at 17 and the par-five 18th.
Photo: AFP
The 31-year-old former University of Washington player won the 2019 RBC Heritage for his lone PGA Tour title.
“It’s always cool to see my name on the top of the leaderboard,” Pan said. “Not just leaderboards, just to be in contention. That’s all I want to do before the tournament started. Finished birdie-birdie. That put me in a good spot. But I still got a lot of work to do.”
“You still have to play aggressive because this course, it’s a lot of rough, but if you hit it in the fairway you will have a lot of short irons in and create a lot of birdie opportunities,” he added.
A second-place pack included world No. 3 McIlroy, 2013 US Open champion Rose and Fleetwood, a two-time major runner-up chasing his first US PGA victory, plus Americans Mark Hubbard, Harry Higgs and Andrew Novak.
Additional reporting by AP
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