 Perry aims to become the 39th back-to-back winner on the PGA tour |
Kenny Perry stretched his lead to two shots after a steady third round at the Memorial Tournament in Ohio on Saturday. The 42-year-old holed three birdies to stay ahead of Lee Janzen who carded a one-under par round of 71.
Spain's Jose Maria Olazabal raced up the leaderboard with the day's lowest round of 66 to tie for third place alongside Vijay Singh and South Africa's Retief Goosen.
But it was another round to forget for Tiger Woods who slipped out of contention with a miserable round of 76.
Perry is chasing back-to-back victories after he triumphed in the Colonial last weekend and with such a rare prize in sight he starting proceedings cautiously.
The 1991 champion shot 11 straight pars at the Muirfield Village course before birdying the 12th, 14th and final hole.
 I'm in control of my game and I'm enjoying the moment |
"It was a tough day mentally and physically," Perry said. "You can't let down at any time on this course.
"I'm not going to put too much pressure on myself.
"I have a lot of people hooting and hollering for me, which I never had."
But Olazabal was the real crowd pleaser as he holed three birdies in four holes to propel himself into the top three.
The Spaniard rated his performance as the "second or third best" round of his career.
World number one Tiger Woods also gave fans a rare sight as he recorded a treble bogey at the sixth to slip back to joint 16th.
Ireland's Padraig Harrington rests on two under alongside Sweden's Jesper Parnevik after a string of dropped shots.
Luke Donald was also out of luck on day three as he hit four double bogeys to slide to three over while Lee Westwood is one under.
MMIX
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