Palm Harbor, FL — The final round at the Valspar Championship is going to be a thriller after the way the third round ended. At this point, anybody could win the title. Round two treated us with a 10-under round, which tied with the course record. Davis Riley chased toe course record during round three recording a 9-under 62, taking the lead by two strokes.
Riley Comes out of Nowhere for the Lead
Davis Riley, the 25-year-old from the University of Alabama, started the day five strokes back from the lead. Following his third-round performance, he sits above the rest of the field by two strokes. Searching for his first ever professional win, Riley shot an amazing 9-under to race up the leaderboard. He started off hot right out of the gate, carding birdies on each of the first two holes. After that, he was able to roll in seven more birdies throughout the round. Davis was by far the hottest putter in the snake pit today.
Riley gained a stunning 3.989 strokes on the green today, while only hitting 38% of greens in regulation and 61% of fairways in regulation. This just means his short game was on fire. It also helped that a few of his birdie putts came from just off the green.
Matthew NeSmith still in the Mix
Coming off of a record round at Copperhead during the second round, NeSmith was unable to get it going in round three. He ended the day with a 2-under 69. However, he still sits alone in second place.
NeSmith had a good front nine, going bogey free with four birdies. However, his back nine really kept him from running away with the tournament. He carded only two birdies and four bogeys on holes 10, 13, 16 and 17. Without these, he still has a two-stroke lead over the rest of the field going into the final round. Other than getting caught in the snake pit, one of the hardest three hole stretches in golf, NeSmith’s stats stayed on average with 2.11 strokes gained putting, 84.62% fairways in regulation, and 66% of greens in regulation.
JT in the Top 10
After still being favored to win the tournament after round two, Justin Thomas looks like he could make a run. After shooting a 5-under 66 for the third day in a row, he found himself tied for third, just three strokes back from Riley. Thomas has only shot 66 or below in the first three rounds of a tournament twice in his career. Those both resulted in wins at both the CIMB in 2016 and the Sony Open in 2016.
Stat-wise, JT had a similar performance to the first couple of rounds. The only thing that was really eye openingly different was his performance on the greens. He gained 1.537 strokes on the greens during the third round, improving that stat significantly.
What to Look for in Round 4
Expect the field to catch up to Riley quickly. It is difficult for someone to shoot consecutive low rounds, especially when you have never won a tour tournament. An example of this is NeSmith’s performance over the week. Expect Thomas to be in it until the final few holes. Overall, it should be a close, action-packed final day of the Florida Swing.
