Shane Lowry’s new putting grip failed to come through a tough third-round test in the Honda Classic as he had 35 putts in a four-over 74 to fall seven shots behind leader Matt Jones.

A northwest wind caused major problems for the later starters at PGA National, especially on the greens, with just two players who went in the final hour managing to break the strict par of 70 on the water-strewn Champion Course at PGA National.

They were headed by Australian Jones (40) who turned in one-over 36 but came home in 33 for a 69 that gave him a three-stroke lead on 10-under par over JB Holmes, who shot 67 earlier in the day, and overnight leader Aaron Wise, who struggled to a 75.

Scores

Asked the biggest challenge on Saturday, Jones said: “Probably putting. These greens are very, very fast, there's a lot of, there's down grain, into the grain, (no microphone) the ball just sits right on top of the grass and you have a little bounce here and there. Especially with the wind.”

After carding a brace of 64s to lead by three shots from Jones and Brandon Hagy (76) at halfway, Wise birdied the second and fourth to open up a six-shot lead on 14-under par.

Then the wind got up and after following a double-bogey at the sixth with a bogey at the seventh to fall back to 11-under, Wise bogeyed the 10th and then dropped another three shots in his last four holes to post a 75 that threw the tournament wide open.

Lowry missed birdie chances from seven feet at the first and nine feet at the second but while he made a 14 footer for par a the fourth and a seven-footer at the seventh to remain on seven-under, he gradually lost confidence as the course dried out and the wind gusted, missing four times inside 10 feet having failed just twice inside that distance on the first two days put together.

Just as Wise double-bogeyed the sixth, he rolled in a slick 16 footer down the green at the ninth to turn in eight-under and find himself only four shots behind.

As Wise bogeyed the seventh and 10th, the gap was down to just two strokes and Lowry was tied for second place.

But just the Clara man Lowry needed to hang tough, he lost confidence in his speed control on the back nine with his new right below left putting grip as conditions became hugely testing and the fast greens dried out even more.

After dropping a shot at the 11th, where his 171-yard approach slipped back into the penalty area, he went from fairway bunker to greenside sand at the 12th and missed from 20 feet for par to fall back to six-under.

Six closing pars would have been worth their weight in gold but after avoiding a three-putt at the 13th by making a seven-footer for par after overhitting his 53-foot approach putt, he three-putted the 14th from 30 feet, pulling a four-foot par putt.

Unnerved by that miss, he did well to avoid another three-putt at the 15th, where his tee shot flew 20 yards part the pin and he came up 10 feet short with his approach putt.

Short-sided by the bunker at the 16th with his approach, he couldn’t save par from 12 feet, then finished with a morale-sapping three-putt bogey from 41 feet at the par-five 18th, where he missed from four and a half feet for par.

It added up to a homeward nine of 40 blows featuring 20 putts, leaving him tied 18th on three-under-par.

But while he’s seven strokes behind Jones, he’s just three shots off fourth place and a strong final round alongside Harold Varner III would help him set a formidable target for the leaders.

A two-time Australian Open winner, Jones knows that Sunday will be a grind and three-shot leads mean nothing.

“I saw I was six back, but I really knew six back means nothing on this golf course with the holes we had to go,” he said of his third round and his early deficit with Wise. “So I was just trying to manage my way around, make pars, as many pars as I could really and I was lucky enough to do that and make a couple of birdies.”

Asked if the expected a “wild finish”, Jones added: “Doesn't matter how big your lead is or how small your lead is, anything can happen. And not just this golf course, it happens every week out here. So we'll see what happens.

“I mean, I'll draw on I've won a couple of Australian Opens in between, so I can draw on those. I mean, playing with those top players in the final group down there was always something I can draw on. And playing out here it's just a tough golf course. I mean, you have to go hit the ball (no microphone) so coming from Australia we grew up in a lot of wind so I've got 36 years experience playing in the wind.”

2021 The Honda Classic

(The 24th of 50 events in the PGA TOUR Season)

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida March 18-21, 2021 Purse: $7,000,000 ($1,260,000/winner) PGA National (Champion Course) Par/Yards: 35-35—70/7,125

Third-Round Notes – Saturday, March 20, 2021

Weather: Partly cloudy with a high of 78. Wind NW 6-12 mph.

Third-Round Leaderboard

1 Matt Jones 61-70-69—200 (-10)

T2 J.B. Holmes 69-67-67—203 (-7); Aaron Wise 64-64-75—203 (-7)

T4 C.T. Pan 67-72-65—204 (-6); Cameron Tringale 67-68-69—204 (-6) Sam Ryder 69-63-72—204 (-6)

T18 Shane Lowry 67-66-74—207 (-3)

Things to Know

• For the second time this week, Matt Jones holds an overnight lead of three strokes

• 36-hole leader Aaron Wise falls three shots behind as he bids for second PGA TOUR win

• J.B Holmes started the third round eight-shots off the lead in T16 position

• 10-under is the highest 54-hole score (in relation to par) since The Honda Classic moved to PGA National in 2007 (6-under in 2007 and 2008)

• After beginning the third round T42, C.T. Pan cards low round of the day 5-under 65

• In bid to join Jack Nicklaus as players to successfully defend at The Honda Classic, Sungjae Im sits T7, five strokes back

Third-Round Lead Notes

• 7  Third-round leaders/co-leaders to win since the event moved to PGA National in 2007

• Most recent: Rickie Fowler/2017

• 8  Third-round leaders/co-leaders to win on TOUR in 2020-21

• Most recent: Collin Morikawa/World Golf Championships-Workday Championship at The Concession

Matt Jones (1st/-10)

• Age 40 (4/19/1980)

• FedExCup 60

• OWGR 83

• Starts at The Honda Classic 7

• Top-10s at The Honda Classic 1

• PGA TOUR starts 329

• PGA TOUR wins 1

• Starts in 2020-21 15

• Top 10s in 2020-21 2

• Top-10s PGA TOUR 27

Entering the Week

• First-round leader regains a three-stroke lead heading into Sunday; also led by three strokes after round one

• Ranks No. 1 in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green (12.289) and second in the field in Strokes Gained Around the Green (5.716)

• Finished T47 at last year’s The Honda Classic

• In 15 starts on the PGA TOUR this season, has collected two top-10 finishes (T4/Bermuda Championship, T8/The Genesis Invitational)

• Winner of the 2014 Vivint Houston Open on the PGA TOUR

J.B. Holmes (T2/-7)

• Making his seventh appearance at The Honda Classic, the Campbellsville, Kentucky native started the third round eight-shots off the lead and posted a 3-under 67 for the day

• Best finish at this event in six previous starts at The Honda Classic T12 in 2010

• Best result in seven starts on the PGA TOUR this season is T46/Safeway Open

• Seeks his sixth career PGA TOUR title and first since 2019 The Genesis Invitational

Aaron Wise (T2/-7)

• 36-hole leader falls three shots behind in bid for his second PGA TOUR win (2018 AT&T Byron Nelson)

• With his 2018 win in Texas, became second player to win Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada, Korn Ferry Tour and PGA TOUR (Mackenzie Hughes)

• Marks his third start in The Honda Classic with his best finish (T33) in 2018

• Closed with 8-under 63 to finish solo-second at 2020 Mayakoba Golf Classic presented by UNIFIN, his best result in 11 starts this season

Miscellaneous Notes

• After beginning the third round T42, C.T. Pan cards low round of the day 5-under 65, matching his season-low round; (Rd1/2021 Sony Open in Hawaii); searching for second PGA TOUR win in 123rd career start (2019 RBC Heritage); with a win Sunday, would become the tournament’s 11th international player to have won the event since 2005

• Making his second start at The Honda Classic (T53/2020), Winter Park, Florida., native Sam Ryder (T4/-6) is in contention to claim his first career PGA TOUR victory in his 90th start

• Cameron Tringale (T4/-6) offset a lone bogey with two birdies to post 1-under 69

• Ryder and Tringale mark two of the 12 players at 5-under or better through 54 holes in the field to seek their first PGA TOUR win

• Last year’s The Honda Classic champion Sungjae Im sits T7 and five strokes back in his bid to join Jack Nicklaus (1977-78) as players to successfully defend their title in the event

• Following a shoulder injury, The Honda Classic marks the final event remaining for Camilo Villegas (T13/-4) to earn 136 FedExCup points (3-way T3 or better) and remain in the Major Medical category or 24 FedExCup points (2-way T32 or better) to play the remainder of the season out of the 126-150 category; should he fail to reach either of these goals he will move to No. 2 in the reorder category

Bogey-free rounds:

R1 (1): Matt Jones (61)

R2 (5): Brandon Hagy (62), Sam Ryder (63), Brice Garnett (64), Adam Hadwin (65), Brendan Steele (65) 

R3 (2): C.T. Pan (65), Chris Kirk (67)

Course Statistics Toughest Hole

1. R1:  Par-3 17th (3.573)

2. R2:  Par-4 14th (4.408)

3. R3:  Par-3 17th (3.426)

Easiest Hole

1. R1 Par-5 18th (4.301)

2. R3 Par-5 18th (4.331)

3. R3 Par-5 3rd (4.412)

“Bear Trap” averages

R1: No. 15 (3.238/5th-toughest), No. 16 (3.986/15th-toughest), No. 17 (3.573/toughest)

R2: No. 15 (3.162/6th-toughest), No. 16 (4.275/T4th-toughest), No. 17 (2.845/16th toughest)

R3: No. 15 (3.324/3rd-toughest), No. 16 (4.309/4th-toughest), No. 17 (3.426/1st toughest)

Through two rounds there were a total of 38 birdies at No. 15, 43 on No. 17 and 48 on No. 17

Round 3: 8 birdies at No. 15, 0 on No. 16 and 1 at No. 17