Merritt Leads by 3 Going into Final Round of RBC Heritage

HILTON HEAD, S.C. -- Unfazed by a big stage -- and one really bad hole -- Troy Merritt righted the ship on Saturday in the middle of his round at Harbour Town Links and shot a  2-under-par 69. As a result, he will take a three-stroke lead into the final round of the RBC Heritage Classic.

The former star in both basketball and golf at Spring Lake Park High School has a 54-hole total of 199. Among those in pursuit is defending champion Matt Kuchar, who holed a bunker shot on the 72nd hole to win this tournament a year ago. He's at 202, tied for second place along with Kevin Kisner and Brendon Todd. Todd lit up the course to the tune of 63 on Saturday to put himself in the hunt. Kisner posted a 67, and Kuchar a 68.

Jim Furyk, a frustrated money machine in recent years, also shot 68 and is another stroke back at 203, tied with Brice Garnett and Brenden Grace for fifth. 

Furyk hasn't won since he claimed the season-ending Tour Championship in 2010. That gave him the FedEx Cup Championship for that year, which was worth $10 million. Since then, he's made more than $14 million in 4 1/2 seasons and finished second seven times, but the 44-year-old with one of the PGA Tour's most unorthodox swings hasn't won again. At least not yet.

Another notable name still in the hunt at Harbour Town is Jordan Spieth. The newly crowned Masters champ followed a 62 on Friday with a 68 that could have been significantly better on Saturday and is tied with Beau Van Pelt for eighth place at 204. 

Merritt, 29, has never won a regular event on the PGA Tour. His best finish was second place last year at the FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis. He did, however, prove that he could play under pressure by going wire to wire while winning medalist honors in the grueling 108-hole Final Stage of the 2009 PGA Tour Q-School, something that was done only three times in the more than four decades that the old Q-School process was in place. (It no longer exists. Players who want to earn their way onto the PGA Tour now must go through the web.com Tour, which has its own Q-School.)

On Friday, Merritt tied the course record at Harbour Town with a 61, which gave him a four-stroke lead at the halfway point in the tournament. He got off to a good start in Round 3 with birdies at the 502-yard, par-5 second hole and the 469-yard, par-4 third.

He then parred the next four holes, and at that point had gone 32 holes without a bogey or worse (he made what has been his only bogey in the tournament so far at No. 11, a 430-yard par-4, in Thursday's opening round). But then he pulled a 6-iron into the water hazard to the left of the green at No. 8 (469 yards, par 4). After taking a penalty stroke and dropping a new ball next to the hazard, 40 yards short of the green, he mis-hit a pitch shot and was still 5 yards short of the green -- lying 4.

Merritt salvaged a double bogey by chipping to 5 feet and making the putt for 6, and he bounced back with a birdie at the next hole, the 332-yard, par-4 ninth. 

The former Division II All-American at Winona State who went on to be a Division I All-American at Boise State, where he had the lowest scoring average in the country  (69.4 strokes per round) during his senior year, 2007-08, had several chances to separate himself from the field on the back nine Saturday. But the only birdie putt he was able to convert on the inward half came at the 192-yard, par-3 14th hole.  

PGA TOUR

RBC Heritage Classic

At Harbour Town Links 

Par 71, 7,101 yards

Hilton Head, S.C.

Third-round results 

1. Troy Merritt              69-61-69--199

T2. Matt Kuchar          68-66-68--202

T2. Brendon Todd       73-66-63--202

T2. Kevin Kisner         68-67-67--202

T5. Jim Furyk              71-64-78--203

T5. Bruce Garnett       72-66-65--203

T5. Brenden Grace     70-67-656--203