Sergio: still battling away but found life tough on Saturday
Sergio Garcia remains in contention for a first PGA Tour win since 2008 despite enduring a difficult day at the HP Byron Nelson Championship in Texas on Saturday.
The Spaniard - tied for the halfway lead alongside American Ryan Palmer - shot a four-over 74 and failed to make a single birdie during his third round at the TPC Four Seasons Resort.
But with scoring tough on a windy day in Texas, he remains just one shot behind leader Palmer, who also found it tough going during a three-over 73 which left him at five-under.
Third round leaderboard
(US unless stated)
-5 R Palmer
-4 S Garcia (Spa)
-3 A Atwal (Ind)
-3 R Imada (Jpn)
-2 G Woodland
-2 M Kuchar
-2 J Ogilvie
Click here for collated scores
Garcia and Palmer had started the day three shots clear at eight-under but their struggles saw them come back to the pack.
Arjun Atwal jumped up to tied third-place thanks to a best-of-the-day 67 and the Indian is now just two shots behind along with Japan's Ryuji Imada (70).
It's then a further stroke back to Americans Gary Woodland, Matt Kuchar and Joe Ogilvie at two-under.
Woodland and Kuchar were two of just eight players to break par as the winds and baked greens saw the average score balloon to 73.3 - more than three strokes over par.
Nick Watney suffered a late wobble but is still just four back while Dustin Johnson remains in the hunt after a 69 saw him finish five behind.
Garcia dropped his first shot at the second when missing his par putt from seven feet and a further stroke went at eight.
Bogey
He steadied the ship with seven straight pars but made a bogey six at 16 after missing a short putt and then shoved his tee-shot right at 18 and couldn't save par.
Palmer hit just three of 14 fairways during his 73 but was level par for the day through 13 after a birdie at 10 cancelled out his bogey at the sixth.
But bogeys at 14, 16 and 18 (the closing hole averaged half a stroke over par) meant any hopes of a cushion at the top of the leaderboard were dashed and he'll now take a precarious one-shot lead into the final round.
Garcia's preparations for the Byron Nelson had been hampered by an infected fingernail which caused him to pull out of Open Championship qualifying in Texas earlier this week.
His current world ranking isn't good enough to get him into either next month's US Open at Congressional or The Open at Royal St Georges in July although a win in the Byron Nelson Championship would change all that.
Chat about this story w/ TalkitaSource: http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12040_6957709,00.html
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