60 is music to amiable Cameron Smith’s ears

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Our Correspondent
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Cameron Smith shot into joint lead at The Northern Trust with a course record of 11-under 60 on Saturday. Photo: Twitter
Cameron Smith shot into joint lead at The Northern Trust with a course record of 11-under 60 on Saturday. Photo: Twitter

Cameron Smith recorded a career-low 18-hole score and set the Liberty National course record with a 60 to enter the final round tied for the lead with Jon Rahm at The Northern Trust.

World No. 1 Rahm holds at least a share of the lead for the third consecutive round.

The final round has been postponed to Monday due to Hurricane Henri’s impact on Sunday’s forecast. This is the first scheduled Monday finish on the PGA Tour since the 2019 ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP.

Smith missed a 12-foot, 10-inch birdie putt at No. 18 and carded an 11-under 60. Had he made the putt, it would have been the 13th sub-60 round in PGA Tour history.

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His career-low round on the Tour (previous: 62, twice; most recent: R2/2021 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational).

The score comes one year to the day after Scottie Scheffler posted a second-round 59 at The Northern Trust contested at TPC Boston.

 

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Smith set a Liberty National Golf Club course record (previous: 62, four times entering the third round, including two in 2021).

This is his first 54-hole lead/co-lead of his Tour career in an individual stroke-play event (with partner Jonas Blixt, held the 54-hole lead at the 2017 Zurich Classic of New Orleans and went on to win).

His previous-best 54-hole position in an individual stroke-play event: solo-second, 2020 Sony Open in Hawaii (Won).

Smith has a career-best 11 birdies (previous: 9, three times; most recent: 2021 RBC Heritage/R1).

He is in search of second victory of the season (first: Zurich Classic of New Orleans with partner Marc Leishman).

Owns one top-10 finish in four career starts at Northern Trust (T3/2018).

Smith is a three-time Tour winner, and is in search of his first FedExCup Playoffs victory.

 

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This is Rahm’s fifth career 54-hole lead/co-lead on Tour; 1-for-4 to date converting to victory (2020 the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday; was forced to WD after the third round of the 2021 Memorial Tournament).

Saturday was Rahm’s first over-par score of the week and came at the par-5 13th, his 49th hole of the tournament.

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He is in search of second victory of the season (first: 2021 U.S. Open).

Rahm’s last three starts on Tour: WD/the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday (led by six strokes after 54 holes and was forced to withdraw), Won/U.S. Open, T3/The Open Championship.

The six-time Tour winner has one career win in the FedExCup Playoffs (2020 BMW Championship).

He leads the Tour in top-10 finishes this season with 12.

2021 Barracuda Championship winner Erik van Rooyen (3rd) tied his career-low on Tour with a 62 (R2, 2020 WGC-Mexico Championship) to reach 15-under 198.

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