Kuchar & Woodland atop Barclays' Leaderboard


Matt Kuchar and Gary Woodland now share the 54-hole lead in The Barclays. The $8 million PGA Tour event began Thursday at Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey.

Kuchar, who came into the first of four legs in the season-ending FedEx Cup Playoffs ranked second in the points' standings behind five-time winner Tiger Woods, carded a 1-under 70, and Woodland had a 68.

Both players are at 12-under 201, one stroke ahead of Kevin Chappell, who established a new record on the par-71 course with a 9-under 62.

After recording two bogeys on the front nine, Kuchar rebounded with three birdies on the home half. Kuchar entered the third round with the lead after polishing off a 65 Saturday morning in the tournament, which endured two storm delays totaling six hours on Thursday but is now back on track after officials compressed its schedule.

Woodland, the overnight leader with Webb Simpson at 9-under 133 following a 64 Friday, carded six birdies and three bogeys in the third round.

Chappell told PGATour.com later that his record-setting score was the result of extra practice and some luck. "My game hadn't shown much lately, but I've been working hard," he said. "It paid off today."

Chappell, who needed a mere 24 putts in his 62, added, "I got some good breaks. I played from the wrong fairway twice, but took advantage of the breaks and holed the important putts."

Four behind the leaders are Woods and England's David Lynn, who both shot 69s, while five back are Americans Kevin Streelman (68), Jordan Spieth (68), Bubba Watson (68), Jim Furyk (70) and Rickie Fowler (71), England's Justin Rose (70) - the current U.S. Open champion - and Sweden's Jonas Blixt (70).

Defending Barclays' champion Nick Watney shot a 69 and is tied for 13th at 207 with Simpson, who carded a 3-over 74 in the third round, Australians Aaron Baddeley (68) and Adam Scott (72) - the 2013 Masters champion, Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy (71) and Spain's Sergio Garcia (71).

Reigning British Open champion Phil Mickelson opened with rounds of 71 and 69 and had a 70 on Saturday. He's now nine behind the leaders. PGA champion Jason Dufner has carded two 71s and a 70 and is 10 back.

Before the third round began, the cut was set at even-par 142. In addition, 15 players who missed the cut and another three were eliminated from the Playoffs. Another 10 will have to wait until the end of the last round to see whether they're within the top-100 and advance to next week's Deutsche Bank Championship, which starts Friday at TPC Boston.

The players who were eliminated after missing the cut are James Hahn - who came in ranked No. 101, Mark Wilson (102), Charlie Beljan (104), Jason Bohn (106), Jeff Maggert (108), Morgan Hoffman (111), Chez Reavie (112), D.H. Lee (114), Andres Romero (115), Johnson Wagner (116), Charlie Wi (118) and Steven Bowditch (120).

Also failing to advance is Ben Crane, who came to Liberty National ranked 125th. After withdrawing Friday, Lucas Glover and Justin Hicks were also eliminated from the Playoffs.

Although he shot rounds of 72 and 71 and missed the cut, defending FedEx Cup champion Brandt Snedeker still qualifies for the Deutsche Bank Championship due his No. 3 position in the points' standings entering The Barclays.

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