By Jeremy Harness

mb.com.ph photo: Stephane Jaeger set the web.comtour record for the lowest hole score at 36 Saturday at the PGA Ellie Mae Classic in Hayward

HAYWARD, Calif. – About the only thing that Stephan Jaeger had not done this week was record an eagle. Well, after Saturday’s action, you can scratch that one off the list, too.

After a record-setting 58 in the opening round, which compelled the crew at TPC San Francisco Bay at Stonebrae to coin a drink called the Jaeger-bomb – which is appropriately priced at $5.80 – and adding a rash of birdies to set another record for the lowest 36-hole score in Web.com Tour history, Jaeger followed an outstanding 3-wood shot that settled only about 10 feet from the hole at the par-5 15^th by draining the ensuing putt for an eagle that extended his lead to seven shots.

As was the case in the first round, he did not record a single bogey and finished with a six-under 64, and at a hard-to-believe 23-under par, he carries a seven-shot lead into Sunday’s final round.

“It’s been a good week, it really has, everywhere, in my whole game,” Jaeger said. “Sometimes you don’t get the good breaks and sometimes you do, and I’m fortunate enough that I’ve had a few this week.”

However, what’s even harder to believe is that he has not really locked up anything yet.

Despite how well he has played up to the point, Jaeger knows that he will need to continue to make birdies in the final round to ensure himself a victory. To illustrate that point, Eric Axley of Knoxville, Tenn. got into the thick of things on Saturday by shooting a 10-under 60 Saturday morning and finds himself nine strokes back.

Meanwhile, Georgia native Keith Mitchell fired a nine-under 61 and also finds himself nine shots behind with an overall score of 14-under par.

“I’m going to stay aggressive (Sunday) and try to shoot the lowest score I can,” Jaeger said. “You never know, one of the guys in second or fourth (place) can shoot a good round and make it a little more interesting.

“But if I play well, I think it’s going to be tough to catch (me).”

Speaking of record-breaking rounds, Jaeger’s third-round playing partner, Rhein Gibson, is no stranger to historically-low rounds himself.

Four years ago, the Australian who played his college golf at Oklahoma Christian University, where he was an NAIA All-American, shot a score of 55 on a par-71 course. The mark earned him a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records as the lowest round ever recorded.

Gibson finished Saturday’s round with a three-under 67, but it could have been lower had his short birdie putt at the 18^th not spun out of the hole and forcing him to settle for a par, nullifying a fantastic iron shot into the green that fed down and nearly found the hole for an eagle.