Gooch on brink of maiden PGA Tour win at RSM Classic

Talor Gooch is one round away from his first PGA Tour trophy after earning a three-stroke lead at the RSM Classic.

Gooch moved to the brink of a breakthrough victory on Saturday thanks to the American's three-under-par 67 in the third round in Georgia.

The 30-year-old, a one-time winner on the Web.com Tour in 2017, extended his lead courtesy of four birdies and just one bogey at Sea Island Golf Club, where he is 16 under through 54 holes.

"Any day like that is going to be a grind on the tour," Gooch said. "To be frank, what you're trying to do out there is avoid bogeys.

"It would have been easy today at times to just really get conservative and really be defensive. I was pleased I was able to stay aggressive at times."

Gooch holds a 54-hole lead/co-lead for the first time in his PGA Tour career – his previous best 54-hole position was solo second at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba a fortnight ago.

In his first 101 starts on the PGA Tour, Gooch's best 54-hole score was 198 (2020 Wyndham Championship. He has now carded 196 through three rounds twice in his last three starts.

"I want to be the best and I want to compete against the best and I want to be the best Oklahoma State golfer on TOUR," he said. "Everyone talks about Matt Wolff and Viktor Hovland … rightfully so. They're incredible players.

"But that's always a nice little something to kind of get you to work a little bit harder, be a little bit more diligent and try to prove them wrong."

Seamus Power (67) and Sebastian Munoz (69) are 13 under heading into the final round, while Tom Hoge is a shot further back following his third-round 67.