Playing out of the 10th-to-last twosome, World No. 296 J.B. Holmes painted a 3-under-par 34-33=67 in the breezy third round of The Honda Classic to reach the three-quarter mark on 7-under 203, up 14 spots into a two-way T2, three in arrears of leader Matt Jones (67), who he’ll be with in the final pairing on Sunday.
After opening with 69-67, the Orlando resident began T16 on 4-under, one shy of the overnight top 10 and eight adrift of leader Aaron Wise (75). He conjured six (of 14) fairways but pelted 15 greens in regulation, losing strokes off-the-tee (-0.037) and around-the-green (-0.367), but gaining 4.491 on approach. The University of Kentucky product squared two bogey-5s at holes 4 and 16 (3-putt from 41'3"), camouflaged by five circles at 3, 5, 11, 14 and 15, two from between six and 12 feet. This is the first time this season in eight starts that he’s been in the top 10 after 54 holes, and the first since last season’s WM Phoenix Open, where he was T3 before finishing T16 (64-65-70-75). The 38-year-old is vying for his sixth TOUR victory in 334 events, first since the 2019 Genesis Open 33 starts ago, where he came from four back (T2) with 1-under 70 to win by two. “I didn’t really miss an iron shot on the back side. So, it was playing very difficult, it wasn’t a lot of room for error. But I struck it really good and putted it well (posted 0.339 SG: Putting). If I hit it like I did today it would be great (referencing tomorrow). It would be nice if I made a few more putts.”