…. Fatiha Betscher, Tampa Bay, FL.
Ryan Moore took the bite out of the ‘Snake Pit’, and the final three holes of the Copperhead course, and muscle his way to a one shot lead with a round to play in the Valspar Championship.
Moore, 32 finished with four 3s that included birdies at 16 and the final hole in a round of a four under par 67 to move to nine under through 54-holes as he seeks to win for a second time on the 2014/15 wraparound schedule.
And a check of Moore’s scorecard shows he started with 12 straight pars before birdies at 13 and 14 ahead to playing the ‘Snake Pit’, and the closing three holes at the Innisbrook Resort course in two under par.
The Tacoma-born Moore captured the CIMB Championship in Kuala Lumpur late last year that was his fourth PGA Tour success.
American Ryan Moore tames the ‘Snake Pit’ to take a one shot lead into the final round of the Valspar Championship. (Photo – www.pgatour.com)
Now Moore is one around away from adding a fifth Tour title to his growing CV.
However the American will have his work cut out with ultra-talented Jordan Spieth (68) in second place on eight under par and with the Lone State star looking also to add to his Australian Open and Hero World Challenge triumphs at the end of 2014.
Dererk Ernst (69) is one shot further back at seven under par and with Sean O’Hair (69) in fourth spot at six under par while there’s three players at five under par – Patrick Reed (68), Henrik Stenson (71) and Matt Kuchar (68) – who know the sweet taste success.
“Any day around this golf course with no bogies is pretty good especially the spots where I hit it,” Moore said.
“I was able to save par really low in the middle of my round, made some good putts but had some good chip shots. Was able to get it rolling there and make some birdies coming in.”
Moore grabbed his first birdie at the 200-yard par-13th with a 6-iron to 8 1/2 feet and it proved to ignite his round.
“It was not an easy par 3 especially with that wind,” Moore said. “It was hard to figure out whether it was really helping or more across. Obviously, you don’t want to get that wrong with water short and with trouble long, you don’t want to go long of that green.
“Stepped up and hit a great iron shot there, left myself nice 8-, 9-footer right below the hole and knocking that in kind of got me going there on the backside.”
Spieth was tied for the lead until Moore’s birdie at 18 and where Spieth saved par at that hole with a one-putt from 6 feet.
“I got a lot of confidence at the end right there with my putter,” said Spieth.
“I had those 6-, 7- footers that, you know, when I’m close but not quite there those are the ones that slide by the hole because I just kind of baby it a little bit and hit confident putts coming in. Hopefully, that does a lot of good for me tomorrow.
“Ryan has been obviously on his game for weeks now and I’ve just been starting to trend up where I want to be,” Spieth said, “We’re both really right where we want to be this week.
“So, with that being said, he’s a great ball-striker. He hits it very straight and very disciplined and good putter. I expect him to shoot a few under tomorrow and I’m going to have a really good round to win.”
Biggest disappointment was Zimbabwe’s Brendon de Jonge who posted a round of 75 to slip from a one shot 35-hole lead and into tie for 14th place at two under par.
