Guthrie & Thompson on Top of Honda Classic


Though there's a lot of golf to play with 18 holes to go, Luke Guthrie and Michael Thompson are each poised for their first career PGA Tour titles in the $6 million Honda Classic, which began Thursday on the difficult Champion Course at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Guthrie, a 23-year-old former All-American at Illinois who qualified for the PGA Tour after racking up two wins last year on the Web.com Tour, started Saturday with a one-stroke lead over Thompson and was two in front of Boo Weekley and Canadian Graham DeLaet.

After shooting a 1-over 71 to Thompson's even-par 70, the two players are tied at 8-under 202, two shots ahead of Lee Westwood (70) and Geoff Ogilvy (70), and three over Rickie Fowler (69) and Charles Howell III (71).

On a windy day, DeLaet fell down the leaderboard after a 73 and is now tied for seventh at 206 with Y.E. Yang (67), Peter Hanson (68), Keegan Bradley (70) and Justin Rose (72). Yang's 3-under was Saturday's low mark.

Weekley posted a 74 and shares 12th at 207 with Darron Stiles (68), Erik Compton (70), James Driscoll (70), Lucas Glover (72), Tom Gillis (72) and Nicholas Thompson (72).

Tiger Woods shot his third straight 70 and is tied for 32nd at even-par 210 with six others. Woods hasn't quite been able to put all elements of his powerful game together this week. "It's not that far off," he told PGATour.com. "I feel like I'm probably just not quite driving it as well."

The day's difficulty was exemplified by an 11-over by Billy Horschel, who opened with a 66 and 69 to get into contention after 36 holes. But the 26-year-old Floridian was undone by six bogeys, three doubles and a lone birdie on Saturday.

For all the scores, visit http://www.pgatour.com/leaderboard.html.