Martin Kaymer shot a round of 66 to to take a two-shot lead in the Memorial Tournament in Ohio.
Kaymer began the day tied for the lead with American Troy Merritt and South Korea’s Kyoung-Hoon Lee, but they fell away to finish the round in a tie for 10th and sixth respectively.
Former world number one Kaymer finished the day with a blemish-free card, hitting birdies at the third, ninth, 11th, 13th, 15th and 16th holes. It was the lowest 54-hole score of the German’s career.
Australia’s Adam Scott finished two shots back from Kaymer after carding a second successive 66, while Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama produced the round of the day, an eight-under-par 64, which lifted him up 22 places into a tie for third.
Matsuyama also fired a bogey-free round — which included eight birdies — to sit alongside Jordan Spieth, who closed with a 69, and Patrick Cantlay (68).
England’s Justin Rose was unable to follow up his second-round score of 63, just two off the course record, which had lifted him to within three of the leaders as he posted a 71 to tie for 10th with Rickie Fowler and Merritt.
Tiger Woods moved up eight places on the leaderboard after a two-under-par 70, which followed scores of 70 and 72 in rounds one and two.
Luke Donald made one bogey and eight birdies for a round of 65, which saw him leap 50 places into a tie for 15th place alongside fellow Englishman Danny Willett.
Collated third round scores & totals in the USPGA Tour The Memorial Tournament (USA unless stated, par 72):
201 Martin Kaymer (Ger) 67 68 66
203 Adam Scott (Aus) 71 66 66
205 Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn) 71 70 64, Patrick Cantlay 68 69 68, Jordan Spieth 66 70 69
207 Bud Cauley 67 70 70, Marc Leishman (Aus) 67 71 69, Kyoung-hoon Lee (Kor) 68 67 72
208 Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 69 68 71
209 Justin Rose (Eng) 75 63 71, Jason Dufner 72 69 68, Troy Merritt 69 66 74, Rickie Fowler 69 68 72, Kevin Streelman 72 68 69
210 Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 72 70 68, Danny Willett (Eng) 69 69 72, Luke Donald (Eng) 72 73 65
211 Nick Watney 74 68 69, Vaughn Taylor 67 72 72, Xander Schauffele 69 70 72, Matt Jones (Aus) 75 67 69, Joaquin Niemann (Chi) 72 71 68, Brian Harman 71 69 71, Billy Horschel 71 70 70
212 Steve Stricker 69 76 67, Andrew Putnam 68 70 74, Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) 70 71 71, Tiger Woods 70 72 70, Alex Noren (Swe) 73 70 69, Keith Mitchell 73 69 70
213 Peter Malnati 72 72 69, Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 73 71 69, Michael Thompson 71 71 71, Lucas Glover 72 72 69, Ryan Armour 71 71 71, Russell Knox (Sco) 68 73 72
214 Brian Stuard 78 65 71, Rory Sabbatini (Svk) 73 71 70, Sam Ryder 69 71 74, Austin Cook 71 67 76, Byeong-Hun An (Kor) 72 72 70, Gary Woodland 69 71 74, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 73 70 71
215 Haotong Li (Chn) 69 72 74, Tyrrell Hatton (Eng) 71 72 72, Kevin Kisner 75 67 73, Si Woo Kim (Kor) 69 70 76, Ryan Moore 65 75 75, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 70 70 75, Corey Conners (Can) 72 69 74
216 JT Poston 72 73 71, Max Homa 70 72 74, Jason Kokrak 71 73 72, Pat Perez 75 70 71, Jim Furyk 72 69 75, Scott Stallings 69 74 73, David Lipsky 70 70 76, David Lingmerth (Swe) 71 74 71
217 Adam Schenk 71 74 72, Bryson DeChambeau 74 70 73, Sungjae Im (Kor) 72 70 75, Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spa) 72 71 74
218 Abraham Ancer (Mex) 72 71 75, Joost Luiten (Ned) 73 71 74, Adam Hadwin (Can) 72 73 73, Anirban Lahiri (Ind) 67 76 75, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng) 73 71 74
219 Joel Dahmen 72 70 77, Brendan Steele 71 73 75
220 Ted Potter, Jr. 70 73 77, Kyung Ju Choi (Kor) 76 67 77
221 Norman Xiong 72 73 76
224 Boo Weekley 74 71 79
