ORLANDO, Fla. — Martin Laird already had lost a four-shot lead Saturday at Bay Hill, and as his 6-iron on the par-3 17th began to fade weakly toward a pond, he wondered if a two-shot lead would disappear even quicker.
He was happy to see it land in a bunker, some 80 feet from the flag. Then came a long blast from the sand to 6 feet, and a par save that felt like a birdie. It was like that all day at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, only one thing didn’t change.
Laird never surrendered the lead.
The 28-year-old Scot, who played his college golf at Colorado State, made it through an up-and-down day with a 2-under 70 and had a two-shot lead over Spencer Levin.
“That was a big one,” Laird said of his par save on the 17th, one hole after a two-shot swing gave him a cushion. “I was lucky.”
Now the hard part.
Laird was at 11-under 205. This is the third time in his last 12 stroke-play events on the PGA Tour that he has been atop the leaderboard going into the final round, and the last two ended with someone else celebrating.
At The Barclays, it was Matt Kuchar hitting a 7-iron to 30 inches to beat him in a playoff. In Las Vegas, it was Jonathan Byrd making a hole-in-one to win a three-man playoff.
Shin leads by one stroke
INDUSTRY, Calif. — Second- ranked Jiyai Shin shot a 3-under 70 to take a one-stroke lead over Sandra Gal after the third round of the Kia Classic.
Shin, the South Korean star who has eight LPGA Tour victories, had a 15-under 134 total. Gal, from Germany, also shot a 70.
South Korea’s Na Yeon Choi was third after a 65.
Michelle Wie shot a 71, to tie for eighth at 5-under. Returning to the tour after finishing finals at Stanford, Wie had five birdies and three bogeys in the round.
Ferrie fires a 60
MALAGA, Spain — England’s Kenneth Ferrie shot a 10-under 60 to match the European Tour record and move within a stroke of leader Paul Lawrie (65) at the European Tour’s Andalucia Open.
