Garcia Takes Lead in Wyndham Championship


Sergio Garcia fired a 4-under 66 to take the 54-hole lead in the Wyndham Championship. The $5.2 million PGA Tour event began Thursday at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C.

Garcia carded five birdies and only one bogey Saturday to reach 14-under 196, one stroke ahead of Bud Cauley (66) and South African Tim Clark (67).

On Sunday Garcia will be looking for his first PGA Tour title since the 2008 Players Championship and is focused on the final round. "I'll go out there, I'll try to play as well as I can," said the 32-year-old Spaniard.

"I'm trying to shoot the lowest score I can and hopefully that would be good enough to have a good solid chance at winning the tournament. We'll see. I'd love to have a crystal ball and tell you exactly what I need to shoot but, unfortunately, I can't." (See below for his full post-round interview.)

The 22-year-old Cauley, who turned pro in 2011 and carded five birdies and a bogey in the third round, is looking for his first Tour title. 'Going to be a lot of fun," he said of Sunday. "I love this golf course. I've got to keep trying to do what I'm doing. See what happens."

Sharing fourth at 198 are Jason Dufner (63), Harris English (68) and 2008 Wyndham winner Carl Pettersson (68). Davis Love III (66) is tied for seventh with Matt Every (68) and second-round leader Jimmy Walker, who posted a 71.

Dufner was understandably thrilled with his 7-under effort. "You know, today was a great day," he said. "Kind of what I needed to get back in this tournament, post a low score and kind be in the mix tomorrow depending on what the leaders, how they finish. So, good move and I'll be looking forward to tomorrow to try to make a run at the championship."

Defending champion Webb Simpson, who began the third round one shot behind Walker, shot a 71 to drop into a tie for 10th with six others at 200.

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

After signing his scorecard, Garcia met with reporters and discussed his day.

MODERATOR: All right. We will jump right in. We'd like to welcome 3rd round Wyndham Championship leader, Sergio Garcia. 4-under 66 today. Got you right where you want to be heading into the final round with a one stroke lead. Get some comments on the round today and then, you know, I guess where you finished 4th, I think one shot out of a playoff. So is there a little bit of revenge seeking?

SERGIO GARCIA: No, not at all. I try not to be like that. You know, obviously I would love to be two, three shots better but, you know, we're in a good situation. Like you said, the lead going into tomorrow, it's going to be a tough day. There's no doubt about it. Lot of very good players behind me trying to achieve the same thing I'm trying to achieve. So, you know, hopefully I'll go out there tomorrow, play well again and give ourselves a good shot at winning and see if we can finish in the same position that I was today.

MODERATOR: With that, we'll take some questions.

Q. Sergio, with so many bunched up, the field so bunched up today, what's the mindset? Do you have to think birdies on this course or what will you think about tomorrow?

SERGIO GARCIA: 18 pars are not going to win it. 14-under par is not going to win it. You have to make some birdies out there. We'll see. I don't have a number. I'm not going to say I need to shoot 4-under, 5-under or whatever. You know, someone might go out and shoot 9-under and 5-under is not good enough. I'll go out there, I'll try to play as well as I can. I'm trying to shoot the lowest score I can and hopefully that would be good enough to have a good solid chance at winning the tournament. We'll see. I'd love to have a crystal ball and tell you exactly what I need to shoot but, unfortunately, I can't.

Q. What's working well for you this week? You're No. 1 in scrambling. Your short game right there for you?

SERGIO GARCIA: Well, usually when you're up amongst the leaders you're doing a lot of good things, things right. You know, I've managed to hit a good amount of fairways which is important, a good amount of greens, too. The ones that I missed I've got up and down almost every time, which is great and, you know, just the last couple of days I managed to roll a couple putts at the right moment. So, you know, overall it's been just quite consistent, I guess.

Q. Sergio how many holes did you hit driver on?

SERGIO GARCIA: Not many. I don't know. Probably five, four, five at the most.

Q. Sergio, you won twice last year in Europe. How much would it mean to win over here with the Ryder Cup thing and everything to sort of being under the gun to do it now?

SERGIO GARCIA: Winning is great. Winning means a lot no matter what. Obviously putting myself in a situation to win is already a good achievement but winning, no matter what it is, it's great. Winning is never easy. It doesn't matter if it's Asian Tour, South African Tour, European Tour. I mean the Tour wins last year in Europe meant to me, meant as much or even more than the ones I've had here. So, at the end of the day, the most important thing, the importance I have give to the victories, not anybody else.

Q. You seem to be in command of your game. When was the last time you felt this in control of everything with confidence and the playing of the game?

SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I wouldn't say I'm - I feel fairly good. I've obviously felt much better. I think that Sweden, for example, this year, I felt like I was hitting the ball better than this week. I think that, you know, there's no doubt that I've been doing some things right and that's why I'm in the position I am. But, you know, I need to keep hopefully getting better and improving in all aspects of my game and, you know, if I manage to do that, then I can get back to, you know, where I was in probably 2008 or so.

Q. Sergio, have you changed caddies this week? Is there a new guy on your bag?

SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah. It's local guy.

Q. That's what I thought. How local?

SERGIO GARCIA: How local? I don't know. He's from close. Not from here exactly but just a little north or something.

Q. What effect did that have, if anything?

SERGIO GARCIA: He's carrying the bag great and, you know, he's doing what he's supposed to do. He hasn't done anything wrong. He hasn't pulled any wrong clubs or read any putts wrong. He hasn't had the chance yet so (laughter) - he's been very good.

MODERATOR: Anyone else? All right. Sergio, best of luck tomorrow. Hope to see you back here.

SERGIO GARCIA: Thank you.

The transcript for the above interview is courtesy of ASAP Sports.