Gary Woodland shot a 5-under 68 on Saturday at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, despite taking a tough phone call late on Friday.
The tournament leader learned on Friday night that his grandmother had passed away back in Kansas.
Despite the emotional gut wrench Woodland managed to shoot a 5-under 68 on Saturday at the Plantation Course to move to 17-under and a three-shot lead over Rory McIlroy.
The highlight was a 63-foot, 11-inch eagle putt that dropped on the par-5 15th hole.
He will chase his fourth PGA TOUR title on Sunday with a little extra motivation.
‘I lost my grandma last night. I got that phone call late last night. That’s been tough. She’s been downhill for a little while now,’ Woodland revealed.
‘So it’s been tough. And you try to prepare for that, but you never really can. So definitely have a little extra emotion with me, but we’ll get through it.’
Woodland has held the 54-hole lead on the PGA TOUR six times in stroke play events, but failed to convert any of them.
His three wins were all coming from behind.
‘I think the difference is I’m a completely different player than I have been in the past. I’ve obviously been in the position multiple times. It’s nice to build off those and take certain things out of them,’ Woodland said.
‘But it’s nice playing with Rory because one, he plays really quick, we hit it similar distances, so we can club off each other. And he’s a great guy, so that definitely helps tomorrow.
‘Tomorrow I’ve got to go out and play aggressive. I’m playing well enough where I don’t have to play conservative. I can attack and continue to trust what I’m doing and should be good.’
Credit: PGA TOUR
