Reigning US PGA champion Collin Morikawa will strive to become the first player to match car-crash recovering Tiger Woods heading into the final round of the Workday WGC at The Concession.
Morikawa, 24, muscled his way to a two-shot lead on the back of a blistering run of seven birdies in an eight-hole run mid-round in succession from his fifth in an eventual round of 67 for a 15-under par tally at Bradenton.
Only one player and that’s Woods has won both a major and a WGC by age 25 and with Woods achieving the feat in 1997 with a first Masters success and then in August 1999 he captured the first of 18 WGC titles, and just four months shy of turning 24.
Morikawa was aged 23 in winning last year’s PGA crown and he turned 24 on 6th February.
The fellow American duo of Billy Horschel (69) and Brooks Koepka (70) share second place on 13-under par.
Rory McIlroy superbly fought back from a second hole double-bogey to complete his closing seven holes in five-under and capped in holing a 12-footer for an eagle ‘3’ at 13 in a round of 66 to share fifth place with Patrick Reed (69) at 11-under.
McIlroy said: “I have been shooting myself in the foot a little bit with early mistakes like at two but over the last 12 holes I started making some good birdies, also the eagle and some good pars.
And in staring at hopefully ending a now 15-month winless drought, McIlroy was quizzed whether he will change his strategy in chasing down Morikawa.
McIlroy said: “No, I just have to think about myself and try to just string together another good round of golf.”
