From the eighth-to-last pairing, World No. 18 Joaquin Niemann played his final six in 3-over but still carded a 2-under 33-37=70 in R3 of the Memorial Tournament, up six spots to T7 on 6-under 210, seven adrift of leader Billy Horschel (65).
The 23-year-old, who will be in the fourth-to-last twosome in R4 with defender Patrick Cantlay, had it to 5-under on the day (6 birdies, 1 bogey) before ending with bogey-5 at 13 (3-putt from 61'4"), double bogey-5 at 16 and bogey-5 at 17 (missed par-saver from 8'6"), but did wrap on a high note with a 19'2" birdie-3 at the last. On 10 (of 14) fairways and 12 greens in regulation, he lost strokes on approach (-0.235) and around-the-green (-1.889), but gained 1.158 off-the-tee and 3.214 on-the-green, converting five scoring chances from between 10 and 34 feet. Thru 54 holes, the Chilean has handed in rounds of 71-69-70, and ranks 7th SG: OTT (3.068), 60th SG: ARG (-1.581), and 9th SGP (4.119). He’s chasing a third TOUR victory in 110 events, first since the Genesis Invitational eight starts ago, where he won wire-to-wire after being the 54-hole leader by three.