The Englishman has done exactly that through 54 holes in Palm Harbor, Fla., firing rounds of 70, 66 and Saturday’s three-under 68, enough for a one-stroke edge over Dustin Johnson heading into Sunday. He’s looking to become the first back-to-back winner in the history of the Valspar, which became an event in 2000.

Casey made five birdies and two bogeys in this third round, one of them coming at his final hole of the day for the second day in a row. He’ll need to close better in the final round if he wants to win and improve upon his history with the 54-hole lead. This is the sixth time he’s had it in his career, of which he’s converted only one into a victory (2009 Shell Houston Open), and he’s never broken 70 in any of those final rounds. Making the challenge seem even more difficult is the fact that only three of the last 11 54-hole leaders at the Valspar have finished the job.

Oh, and he’ll have to hold off Johnson, the No. 1 ranked player in the world who made a move on Saturday with a four-under 67. Other than all that, Sunday should be a walk in the park for Casey, who is in search of his third career PGA Tour victory.

Just two back is Jason Kokrak, whose five-under 66 matched the low round of the day and included a hole-in-one at Innisbrook’s par-3 15th. Kokrak, 33, has never won on the PGA Tour.

And then there is Luke Donald, just three back following his third-round, one-under 70. Just being in contention is a small victory for Donald, who is playing on a major medical extension and has teed it up in only one other event in 2019. If the former World No. 1 were to come from behind and win, it would snap a seven-year win drought on tour. His last victory? The 2012 Valspar Championship.

The post Paul Casey holds one-stroke lead over World No. 1 Dustin Johnson at the Valspar Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers
With 14 major championships and 79 PGA Tour titles, Tiger Woods’ status as one of the game’s all-time greats — if not the all-time great — has been established for years. That doesn’t mean Woods still doesn’t like to see how he measures up against the current competition, though.

During his Wednesday press conference ahead of the Valspar Championship, Woods said he was curious how his stats from his first three starts stacked up. Unfortunately, he didn’t find the answer he was looking for.

Related: Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth paired together at Innisbrook

“I looked up some of my stats last night, I wanted to see how I ranked,” Woods said. “I’m not even on the rankings. I haven’t played enough rounds. Okay. That’s basically how my comeback has been so far this year. I haven’t played a lot.”

With just 10 rounds under his belt in 2018 thus far, Woods currently hasn’t played enough to officially qualify for any of the PGA Tour’s statistical categories. However, Tiger had played enough on this sliding scale as of last week when we checked the numbers.

So Tiger, if you’re looking for a rough estimate, through the Honda Classic here’s how you ranked in some key strokes gained stats: 146th off-the-tee, 93rd around-the-green, 40th approach-the-green, and 16th in putting. You were also 13th in proximity and T-3 in bounceback birdies. Overall, not too shabby, but you’re going to need to improve that off-the-tee number. And your par-5 scoring average of 4.87 was only 208th as of last week. Ouch.

The good news is you’ve got (hopefully) four rounds this week at Innisbrook to improve those numbers. And come Sunday night, you should be able to see your name again when you go to look them up.

The post Even Tiger Woods is curious how his stats rank on the PGA Tour this season appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.