[Photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images]
A mid-round, third-round birdie blitz has thrust Cameron Smith suddenly into the mix in what is now a wide-open sprint to the finish at the PGA Championship in Philadelphia.
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Like a Melbourne Cup field bunching up at the final bend at Flemington in November, 30 players will start the final round at Aronimink Golf Club within five strokes of the lead, 29 of those separated by just three strokes.
Unheralded American Alex Smalley, a 29-year-old without a PGA Tour win or top-20 finish in a major, rescued his round with four birdies in his final six holes to shoot two-under 68 to lead by two shots at six-under par.
Bound for Kingston Heath in December, Rory McIlroy can make it two major wins in succession after shooting four-under 66 in the third round to sit in a share of seventh, just three strokes behind Smalley.
Smith and first-round co-leader Min Woo Lee are the best of the Aussies at two-under in a tie for 11th, Smith shrugging aside six straight missed cuts in majors to shoot a 68 highlighted by a leaderboard surge after the turn on Saturday.
A wide tee shot on the second hole led to a bogey as Smith dropped to one-over for the championship but a birdie at the ninth would spark a mini-deluge of birdies.
That birdie came after just missing the green to the left with his second and two-putting from the fringe, following that with a perfectly executed putt on 10, converting his birdie chance from 14 feet.
The 32-year-old Queenslander hit a wedge inside five feet at 11 to make it three birdies in succession but gave one back when he missed the green to the right at the par-4 12th and was unable to get up-and-down.
It was just a slight stumble, however, as Smith got up-and-down from the bunker short of the 267-metre, par-4 13th to get back to two-under on his round.
There were birdie tries from seven and 23 feet, respectively, at the par-3 14th and 17th holes that went unconverted, Smith signing off with a two-putt for par from 50 feet to put himself in the frame for a second major championship.
Unlike Smith, the middle part of the round was where Lee left ground as he seeks to win his first major championship.
He countered bogeys at the third and fourth holes with birdies at five and six but endured a Saturday gut-punch when he made double-bogey at the par-5 ninth.
The West Australian could only advance his ball 93 metres after finding the dense rough to the left of the fairway and then missed the green to the left with his third. His fourth shot travelled just 24 feet and failed to escape the rough, unable to get up-and-down from there on his way to making 7.
Another missed fairway to the left led to a bogey on 12 but he clawed his way back to within four of the lead with birdies at the 13th and 18th, one of only 10 players to birdie Aronimink’s closer.
Kiwi Daniel Hillier shot 70 to be even-par through 54 holes of his PGA Championship debut, Jason Day tumbling down the leaderboard with a five-over 75 that included double-bogeys at the 10th and 17th.
FULL GOLF DIGEST PGA CHAMPIONSHIP COVERAGE HERE
Round 3 Australasian scores
T-11 Cameron Smith 69-71-68—208
T-11 Min Woo Lee 67-70-71—208
T-31 Daniel Hillier (NZ) 71-69-70—210
T-48 Ryan Fox (NZ) 70-70-72—212
T-64 Jason Day 69-70-75—214
78th Elvis Smylie 72-72-73—217
MC Travis Smyth 74-73—147
MC Adam Scott 72-76—148
Final-round tee-times (AEST)
9:58pm Elvis Smylie
10:16pm Jason Day
11:55pm Ryan Fox (NZ)
1:25am Daniel Hillier (NZ)
2:55am Min Woo Lee
3:05am Cameron Smith
