For England’s Paul Casey to capture the Northern Trust he knows the American duo of Open Champikon Jordan Spieth and World No. 1 Dustin Johnson have to ‘falter’.
For a second end-of-season running Casey has put himself in position to win one of the four FedEx Cup Play-Off events.
His third round four-under 66 in bright conditons on the Glen Oaks course at Old Westbury on New York’s Lon Island delivered Casey the then clubhouse lead at seven under par.
However by day’s end Casey found himself sharing third place with four others including Spain’s John Rahm (67), Royal Birkdale runner-up Matt Kuchar (68), Keegan Bradley (69) and defending champion, Patrick Reed (66).
Though all five now head to the last day trailing five shots behind Spieth who posted eight birdies, including a hat-trick from the 14th, in a sizzling round of 64 to move to 12-under in the $US 8.75m event.
Paul Casey shares third place but now needs the leading duo to ‘falter’ over the final round of the Northern Trust.
Johnson was at his rock solid best with four birdies, including one at the last, in a round of 67 to be in second place but three behind his PGA Tour ‘Player of the Year’ rival.
Casey’s immediate reward is that he is projected to jump eight places to 10 on the FedEx Cup standings.
But the extremely affable Phoenix-based Brit wants more than that and given he’s bizarrely won just once on the PGA Tour and that was in capturing the 2009 Shell Houston Open.
Last year, Casey led going into last round of the Deutsche Bank Championship but only to come against Rory McIlroy who stormed his way from near the 5o-yard line for success on a course just minutes away from the NFLs New England Patriots home ground.
And now as Casey again finds his way again close to success he has Spieth and ‘DJ’ standing between him and the gleaming crystal trophy.
“I clearly need Jordan and DJ to falter, both of them to falter tomorrow,” he said.
“But when I say falter, that would mean kind of them shooting a level par or something or 1- or 2-under. I don’t see that happening. That’s not my concern, and I don’t — you never wish that, anyway, on anybody.
“I’d rather take care of my own game. I personally need to produce my best round of the week. I need to produce a 5- or 6-under I think.
“I sure that number is in the bag. I feel good about the game.
“But then I have to make sure I don’t press too hard right from the beginning. Basically, play today’s round of golf, eliminate the blemishes and I’ve got myself a 6-under, so that’s what I need to do. But I feel good about it, though.”
