Ryan Gerard posted four birdies over his final eight holes on Saturday to move into a tie for first place heading into the final round of the Barracuda Championship at Tahoe Mountain Club in Truckee, Calif.
The Raleigh, N.C., native finished with a plus-12 on the round thanks to seven birdies and two bogeys. His plus-34 through three rounds matches the 54-hole total of Rico Hoey of the Philippines, who entered the day in first place and shot a plus-8 on Saturday.
The Modified Stableford scoring system employed at the event gives golfers points for positive holes – two points for a birdie, five points for an eagle – as opposed to the traditional stroke-play method where low scores are preferable. A bogey loses a point, while a double-bogey or worse loses three.
Gerard's round came on the heels of his plus-15 in Round 2 on Friday, vaulting him up the leaderboard after an opening-round plus-7.
"Really nice way to finish. Hopefully it's a good omen for tomorrow," the 25-year-old Gerard said of his birdie save on 18. "The ball is going far. I just figured I could hit it as hard as I could with a lob wedge and went too hard. Put myself in a tough spot behind the green and just kind of knew I've been playing really solid and hit a great shot and was lucky that it found the hole."
Still looking for his first PGA Tour victory, Gerard has one career win on the Korn Ferry Tour at the BMW Charity Pro-Am in South Carolina in June of last year.
"I think just kind of digging deep when you need to is a big thing, so hopefully we'll go make it happen," Gerard said when asked if he could carry anything he learned in the Korn Ferry win into Sunday's final round.
As for Hoey, he stumbled out of the gate, posting three bogeys and carding a plus-1 in the front nine. Another bogey at 10 put him at zero for the day, but he picked up four birdies between holes 13 and 17 to keep pace with Gerard.
"I just was praying the putter would get hot because the putter was really cold," Hoey said of his thought process during his early struggles. "I felt like I was hitting it well, doing things well. A little bit nervous I guess.
"Struggled early but kind of caught fire on the back, so it was nice to end that way."
South African Erik van Rooyen – the 2021 Barracuda champion – matched Hoey's plus-8 to move to plus-33, one stroke back entering the final round. Tom Valliant of France posted a plus-9 and is another stroke back at plus-32, with Americans Hayden Springer (plus-10) and Vince Whaley (plus-7) tied for fifth at plus-29.