Tony C. McCray Blog: Pat Perez Extends Lead at CIMB Classic

Saturday, October 14, 2017

Pat Perez Extends Lead at CIMB Classic

American Pat Perez continued to dominate the course at Kuala Lumpur, firing an 8-under 64 to open up a four-shot lead on Saturday.

Perez is now 21-under after hitting nine birdies against a single bogey on Saturday.

“These guys are so good and you can make so many birdies out there so fast and I know that,” said Perez. “So if I can get another six (birdies) tomorrow, I might be tough to catch.”

PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Xander Schauffele is in second place at 17-under. He shot a 5-under 67 on Saturday. South Korea’s Sung-hoon-Kang is the only other player within five strokes of Perez with one round to go.

Two-time defending champion Justin Thomas had his best performance of the tournament with a 3-under 69. He’s at 6-under, 15 strokes off the leader’s pace and tied for 24th overall.

The shot of the round came fom South Korea’s Whee Kim, who delivered a hole-in-one on the par-3, 199-yard No. 15. He won a BMW hybrid for his efforts.

“(I) landed perfect and thought ‘Oh made it, it’s going to go in,'” Kim said.

Perez shot the back nine in just 31 strokes despite a bogey on 13. He birdied 10, 12, 14-16 and 18.

World No. 3 Hideki Matsuyama fired a 9-under 63 on the day to get to 15-under, tied for fifth. He did not have a bogey on a day, going on a five-hole birdie run on the front nine, then adding four more on the back nine, including three straight to finish his day.