Blair/ Fishburn shoot 60 to take one-shot lead to final round at Zurich Classic

With good weather, a very good event had an excellent crowd Saturday in Avondale.

The wind was a real factor, gusting up to 25 miles per hour at times but it did not deter scores from going low in the third round of the Zurich Classic Saturday at the TPC of Louisiana.

A pair of players from BYU are poised to make names for themselves.

Zack Blair and Patrick Fishburn went very low, firing a 12-under 60 in the best ball format to get to 23-under 193 for the event with the sole lead. The Utah duo came out of the gate red hot with three birdies and an eagle to start the round on the way to going out at 7-under 29 and immediately shot up the leader board and left a lot of observers wondering who they were.

The non-winners have two-year exemptions on the horizon as a real possibility if they can hold on to the edge in the final round Sunday. New Orleans has produced a host of first-time winners and this year could add to that total.

Blair and Fishburn are one shot clear of Luke List and Henrik Norlander while the glamour, power duo of Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry lurks two shots back at 21-under par after a 64. McIlroy and Lowry started slowly but gained momentum as the afternoon wore on as they birdied seven of their last 12 holes.

McIlroy and Lowry drew a huge gallery all day, the biggest on the course on a big day. Ryan Brehm and Mark Hubbard also checked in at 21-under in a tie for third.

Canadians Adam Hadwin and Nick Taylor, who always play well here, are among those three shots back at 20-under. The duo finished second a year ago.

Scores will go higher Sunday with the alternate shot format returning and the winds will return as well, perhaps even stiffer than what we saw Saturday.