Billy Horschel simply ran away from the rest of the field.
The 35-year-old Horschel, who has won six times on the PGA Tour, fired a bogey-free, 7-under-par 65 to take a five-stroke lead over Cameron Smith of Australia and Aaron Wise of Lake Elsinore heading to the final round of the 47th Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio.
“The work I did in the last three days has really paid off,” said Horschel, who missed the cut last week in the Charles Schwab Challenge. “I just don’t miss very many cuts and it ticks me off when I do, and really I haven’t played very well the last two weeks, so I wanted to get back to the way I played at the beginning of the year.
“So far, this week, I have been able to do that. I’ve just stuck with the process on every shot and that’s what I’m so proud of most. Hopefully, I can keep playing well tomorrow, and go out and try to win this thing.”
Horschel, who captured the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play last season and has finished second in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Zurich Classic of New Orleans this year, made four birdies on the front nine and added three more coming home to record a 54-hole score of 13-under 203.
Smith, who has won twice this season and was at least tied for the lead after each of the first two rounds, made bogeys on the first two holes but played even par the rest of the way for a 72, while Wise, whose only PGA Tour victory came in the 2018 AT&T Byron Nelson, made three birdies on the front nine and one more on the back against a single bogey in a second straight 69.
Daniel Berger collected five birdies on the first seven holes en route to a 67 and is six shots back in a tie for fourth with Francesco Molinari of Italy, who made two birdies on each nine in a 70, and Jhonatthan Vegas of Venezuela, who had three birdies on the front nine in a 71.
Sixth-ranked Patrick Cantlay of Los Alamitos and UCLA holed out from 42 feet for an eagle on the seventh hole and sank a 64-foot eagle putt on the 15th in a 69 and is seven down in a tie for seventh with Joaquin Niemann of Chile, who had seven birdies in a wild 70, Luke List, who took a double-bogey 7 at No. 17 in a 72, Davis Riley, who made two birdies and two bogeys in another 70, and Denny McCarthy who bogeyed the last two holes for a 73.
Eighth-ranked Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland is tied for 15th after a 73, 10th-ranked Jordan Spieth shot 69 and is tied for 19th, second-ranked Jon Rahm of Spain birdied the first two holes but managed only a 73 and is tied for 35th, 11th-ranked Xander Schauffele, the 2021 Olympic Gold Medalist from La Jolla and San Diego State, also had a 73 and is tied for 42nd, and seventh-ranked Viktor Hovland of Norway struggled to a 78 and is tied for 64th.
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