Playing out of the final twosome, overnight co-leader and World No. 132 Tom Lewis patched together a 1-under-par 34-37=71 in the third round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic, dropping five spots to T6 on 11-under 205, three in arrears of 54-hole co-leaders Troy Merritt (67) and playing competitor Joaquin Niemann (68). UPDATE: With the tournament complete, Lewis finished T25 on 11-under 277 (65-69-71-72), dropping to 0-for-1 as a 36-hole leader/co-leader.
The 30-year-old finished T12 on debut last year, where he was T19 after three days (68-71-66-69). This is the second time (individually) in 45 career events that he’s the top 10 at the three-quarter mark, first since T10 at last season’s WGC-FedEx St. Jude, where he closed with 4-under 66 for a career-best T2. The Englishman will play out of the sixth-to-last twosome in the finale with Kevin Tway. He went out in 2-under (4 birdies, 2 bogeys), including three straight circles at 7, 8 (chip-in from 41'10") and 9 (hole-out from off the green with the flat stick from 29'3" away), but stalled out to eight pars and a bogey-5 at 16. On seven (of 14) fairways and 12 greens in regulation, Lewis gained 1.122 strokes around but lost strokes on approach (-1.643) and on the green (-0.378), missing four putts from inside of 11 feet. With 54 holes in the books, he ranks Top 20 in all strokes gained categories with the exception of 51st in approach (0.434).