Walker Stretches Lead to Four at Texas Open


Hometown favorite Jimmy Walker posted a 3-under 69 on another blustery day to grow his lead from one stroke to four through 54 holes of the Valero Texas Open. The $6.2 million PGA Tour is taking place on the difficult Oaks Course at TPC San Antonio.

Walker, a 36-year-old native of San Antonio, carded three birdies and two bogeys on the front nine. After a bogey on the 12th, the four-time Tour winner added three birdies the rest of the way for a three-round total of 9-under 207, four shots ahead of fellow Texan Jordan Spieth, who had a 71.

Walker is in great position for his second victory of the year. The Sony Open winner in January also came into the Texas Open as the leader in the season-long FedEx Cup points' race.

But he's not thinking about victory quite yet at the gnarly Greg Norman-designed layout. "It's a tough golf course," Walker told reporters. "I thought coming into today that even par or maybe 1-under would be a good score. You definitely want to find a way to extend the lead, but you have to be smart about it."

He's also looking to being paired with Spieth, who Walker suspects will also have his share of supporters Sunday. "Jordan and I played the first two days out here and we had a lot of people," Walker said. "We'll probably have even more people tomorrow. It should be fun."

Spieth believes he'll have to be spot-on Sunday to log his second title of 2015. "I'm going to have to hit the ball better than I did today," the 21-year-old from Dallas said. "A couple of tough breaks on the back nine. All in all, I was playing a really solid round of golf, minus a couple of decisions and a couple of swings."

Reigning FedEx Cup champion Billy Horschel had a 71 and is in solo third at 213, while another stroke back are Scott Pinckney (69), Chesson Hadley (71), Jason Kokrak (71), Zach Johnson (72) and Brendan Steele (72).

Sharing ninth at 215 are Chris Kirk (73), Kevin Na (75) and Australia's Aaron Baddeley (76).

Similar to Thursday's opening round when the scores skyrocketed along with winds that gusted to 40 mph, only three players managed to shoot Saturday's low round of 4-under 68. The trio recording that 4-under number included Australia's Matt Jones and Americans Dustin Johnson and Gary Woodland.

Charley Hoffman began the day trailing Walker by only a stroke in a tie for second with Baddeley. But the 38-year-old San Diego native didn't cope well with the adverse conditions, posting a 7-over 79 to drop into a tie for 18th at 2-over 218.

For complete scoring details, visit http://www.pgatour.com/leaderboard.html.