Troy Merritt will take the lead into the final round of the Barracuda Championship with +33 points, followed by Maverick McNealy and Emiliano Grillo each with +29 points.
The Barracuda Championship, being played at Old Greenwood in Truckee, California, this week opposite the World Golf Championships FedEx St. Jude Invitaitional in Memphis, uses the Modified Stableford scoring format and is the only PGA Tour stop to do so.
Players are allocated points based on the number of strokes taken at each hole with the goal of achieving the highest overall score.
Merritt, who played golf at Boise State his last two years in college, finished second in the Barracuda last year, to winner Collin Morikawa. He had six birdies Saturday, and two bogeys.
Merritt will be in the PGA Championship starting Thursday, replacing Francesco Molinari, who withdrew Friday.
Robert Streb has +28 points, Joseph Bramlett and Richy Werenski each are next with +26 points. Seamus Power has +25 points.
Kyle Stanley led after the second round Friday with +22 points, mixing one eagle, six birdies and three bogeys in his first return to the Barracuda Championship since 2016.
Friday’s lead was the sixth time Stanley held the lead after 36 holes. He remained at +22 points (T10) after Saturday’s third round.
Stanley is a two-time Tour winner (2012 Waste Management Phoenix Open, 2017 Quicken Loans National).
The field was cut to the top 67 players after Friday’s second round. The cut line was at +6 points.
- Sponsor exemptions Peter Kuest and Sahith Theegala both advanced to the weekend in their Barracuda Championship debuts. Theegala is at +13 and Kuest at +12.
- Austria’s Matthias Schwab is trying to become the first sponsor exemption to win since Matthew Wolff (2019 3M Open).
- Robert Streb has never missed the cut in five appearances at the Barracuda Championship.