Justin Rose made a huge move in the right direction on the US PGA Championship leaderboard after four birdies in the opening nine holes of his third round saw the Englishman climb 36 spots into a share of 11th place.
With calmer conditions greeting the early starters at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course after strong winds saw the average score rise above 78 on Friday, Rose carded birdies at the fourth and sixth.
The Ryder Cup star made it four birdies in five holes by holing from five feet at the 579 yard seventh and then nearly 25 feet on the next.
Suddenly he had charged from 47th to joint 11th and at level par was only four back on the course where he and Paul Casey were runners-up for England in the 2003 World Cup.
It was proving a wild week for Rose, winner of his first World Golf Championships title in March. He started with a 69, then stumbled to a 79.
Leaders Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh were due to tee off at 15:00 local time, with Carl Pettersson going ten minutes earlier in the company of Rose’s friend and Ryder Cup partner of 2008, Ian Poulter.
Rory McIlroy and Jamie Donaldson (both two under at the halfway stage) will make up the third to last grouping on Saturday, while McIlroy’s Ryder Cup partner of 2010, Graeme McDowell, will play in the company of Phil Mickelson at 14:10 local time.
Rose added an incredible fifth birdie of the day at the tenth – at one under he was now into a tie for seventh – but he was not the only Englishman going well.
David Lynn was three under through five and up into a share of 12th on level par.
The better scoring was exemplified by last year’s runner-up Jason Dufner; the American carding a 68 – one better than Singh’s best-of-Friday 69.
It was an incredible display from the 38 year old, who was playing the first American Major of his life after the World Number 98 snuck into the field as an invite of the PGA of America.
