Photo credit: @NFL_Commentary

By Jeremy Harness

NAPA–In a tournament that has seen a lot of birdies and a lot of movement among the leaders, Brandt Snedeker has been the constant at Silverado this weekend.

After Saturday’s proceedings, Snedeker has the same three-stroke lead that he had a day prior, and he is now 18 holes away from winning for the first time in nearly two months, and it would be his first time winning the Safeway Open, the first PGA Tour event of the 2018-19 season.

Snedeker got things going early with what usually get him there: the putter. He had a long birdie putt at the third hole, and he shook off a bogey at the seventh with a birdie at the par-5 ninth.

He couldn’t get it up and down at the 13th and dropped a shot there, but he responded beautifully with three birdies in a row at holes 16 through 18 to get to 16-under par.

“It was a tough day,” Snedeker said. “The wind kicked up on the last 12, 13 holes and made it hard to hit it close and make birdies.

“I did a great job of staying patient knowing I had 16, 17, 18 for birdie holes left, and I was really proud of the way I stepped up there and hit some quality shots when I needed to. Tomorrow’s supposed to be tougher than today, so every shot is really important coming down the stretch.” One guy who has hung in there is Kevin Tway, who shot a 68 on Saturday, and he will play with Snedeker in the final pairing Sunday afternoon after finishing the third round at 13-under. He played a bogey-free round with back-to-back birdies on the front side – including a hole-out from a greenside bunker 41 feet away at the eighth – as well as two more birdies on the back nine.

“I kept the ball in play nicely, made a nice save on 14 when that was my only real bad shot,” Tway said. “I hung in there and played well.

“I got in contention a few times last year and didn’t do very good, so I’ll use tomorrow to learn from the bad and try to do better tomorrow.”

Phil Mickelson, however, didn’t hang in there as well as the other two. After being in the thick of things the first two days, he came unglued a bit on Saturday, starting with a double bogey at the par-5 eighth. He had two birdies on the back nine, but those were undone by two bogeys on the back side.