J.J. Henry of Fort Worth, Tx. drives the 13th fairway Friday at Montreux.
RENO — J.J. Henry and Montreux Golf & Country Club. It was a match made by the golfing gods.
Henry, who won here in 2012, scored 17 points on the strength of nine birdies and stands at 41 points after 54 holes of the 17th annual Barracuda Championship.
Henry leads David Toms and Jonas Blixt by one point heading into today’s final round. Robert Garrigus is fourth with 37, Patrick Rodgers is fifth at 35 points and former champ Steve Flesch is at 34 points. Rounding out the top 10 are Retief Goosen and second-round leader Andres Gonzales at 33, Brendan Steele is ninth at 32 and Ricky Barnes and Tom Hoge are tied for 10th with 31 points.
Henry will be trying to become the second two-time winner in tournament history. Vaughn Taylor won in 2004 and 2005.
“Yeah. I tell you, this course, this place, is good to me,” he said. “As I mentioned before, I love being here. I am fortunate enough to obviously win in 2012 and have a bunch of other top finishes (here). I just love coming and playing here. It’s just a great place.
“When you make a lot of birdies like I did today it makes it even more fun. I played with Jonas (Blixt). We kind of fed off each other. He played great. It’s nice to see the other guy you’re playing with play well. You know, tomorrow is another day, obviously. Still going to have to go out and make a lot of the birdies, and hopefully I continue to do that one more day.”
Henry opened his round with a birdie and five straight pars before stringing together four straight birdies (7 through 10) to get to 34 points. Henry’s birdie putts ranged from 3 to 20 feet thanks to excellent iron play.
“I think there is a lot of local knowledge,” he said. “I think that’s why I’ve played well here in the past. The fact that you’re at altitude, there is some wind, some elevation. There is a lot figuring going on between Pete Jordan, my caddie, and I. We’ve kind of figured it out, what it looks like, so hopefully we can do it one more time.”
Toms, who bypassed his son’s Junior PGA Championship to come to the event, played some great golf.
He enjoyed an 18-point day, tops in the field on Saturday. A win here would put him in the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Toms, the 2001 PGA champ, had 10 birdies, two bogeys and six pars. He has been steady all week from tee to green.
“Yeah, I played extremely well,” he said. “Hit a lot of shots close to the hole today and I did capitalize on them and made the putts. “Hit a lot of close shots, and that was how I got so many points.
“For the most part I drove it in play all day except for the 17th hole today. Hit a bad tee shot there and ended up making bogey. Other than that my other bogey was a three-putt (on No. 6).”
Toms was at plus-3 through six holes when he turned into a birdie-making machine. He birdied 7 through 11 and 13 to take the lead temporarily at 37 points. He made putts ranging from 1 to 10 feet during his streak. Toms finished off the round with birdies at Nos. 16 and 18.
The 1-footer was on No. 9 when he hit a sand wedge from 100 yards.
“It was perfect yardage for a little sand wedge in there,” Toms said. “It was a tight pin and I went ahead and got aggressive, played it left of the hole, and it came back down the hill real close.”
Blixt also went on a birdie binge of his own (9 through 14). He had eight birdies plus an eagle on the par-5 8th.
“Yeah, a little bit of a slow start, just couldn’t get it going. Then I made eagle on 8 and just the round got kick started. I was able to make a couple birdies and knock a couple close and not have to make those long putts.
“Feel like I’ve been hitting it pretty well. I think I had like one or two tee shots that’s been a little squirrely. That’s going to happen here; you just got to deal with it. I’ve been hitting a lot of fairways and giving myself chances to make birdies. The putter is working good. I’m very happy about my whole game.”