Matt Kuchar, seeking his first win in four years, grabbed a four-stroke third-round lead with another dominating performance at the Mayakoba Classic in Mexico on Saturday.
Kuchar rolled in seven birdies to shoot 65 as he dipped to 20-under-par 193 at the El Camaleon in Playa del Carmen.
South Korean Whee Kim held second on 197 after a five-under 66 with American Richy Werenski and New Zealand's Danny Lee a stroke back. Both shot 67s.
Kuchar, after back-to-back 64s, made sure he stayed in front with four birdies in his first eight holes. He got to six under with consecutive birdies at the 12th and 13th holes before his only bogey of the day at 14 after missing the fairway.
But the American, whose last win came in April 2014 at the RBC Heritage on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, rebounded with a birdie at 15, then closed out the round with three consecutive pars.Whee also birdied the 15th, his fifth of the day.
LEADERBOARD
(USA unless stated, par 71):
193 Matt Kuchar 64 64 65
197 Whee Kim (Kor) 68 63 66
198 Danny Lee (Nzl) 65 66 67, Richy Werenski 65 66 67
199 Aaron Wise 71 65 63, JJ Spaun 69 65 65, Cameron Champ 68 62 69
200 Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 65 68 67, Pat Perez 66 67 67, Abraham Ancer (Mex) 65 68 67, Jim Furyk 69 65 66, Adam Hadwin (Can) 65 67 68, Brice Garnett 68 67 65, Anirban Lahiri (Ind) 65 66 69
201 Tony Finau 69 65 67, Kelly Kraft 69 64 68
202 JT Poston 65 69 68, Stephan Jaeger (Ger) 65 69 68, Vaughn Taylor 69 68 65, Harold Varner III 65 69 68, Dominic Bozzelli 64 67 71
203 Russell Henley 66 69 68, Patton Kizzire 65 66 72, James Hahn 66 67 70, Rickie Fowler 66 68 69, Chez Reavie 67 68 68, Josh Teater 67 67 69
204 Bud Cauley 65 68 71, Armando Favela 67 67 70, Steve Marino 70 64 70, Cheng-Tsung Pan (Tai) 67 69 68, Kyoung-hoon Lee (Kor) 66 66 72, Kevin Chappell 65 70 69
205 Chris Kirk 72 66 67, Scott Langley 69 67 69, Denny McCarthy 72 64 69, Ryan Armour 67 67 71, Scott Piercy 67 68 70, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) 68 66 71
206 Adam Schenk 66 70 70, Kramer Hickok 64 68 74, Sam Ryder 69 68 69, Sung Kang (Kor) 65 70 71, Jose de jesus Rodriguez (Mex) 70 64 72, Si Woo Kim (Kor) 71 67 68, Jamie Lovemark 71 66 69, Joel Dahmen 69 69 68, Billy Horschel 71 66 69, Seth Reeves 68 69 69
207 Jason Dufner 69 66 72, Oscar Fraustro (Mex) 66 70 71, Brian Gay 68 63 76
208 JB Holmes 69 68 71, Scott Brown 67 68 73, Anders Albertson 67 71 70, Sebastian Munoz (Col) 69 67 72, Tyler Duncan 73 65 70, Cameron Davis (Aus) 68 68 72, Jonas Blixt (Swe) 69 63 76
209 Bill Haas 70 68 71, Keith Mitchell 66 71 72
210 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 69 69 72, Joaquin Niemann (Chi) 66 71 73, Ernie Els (Rsa) 72 66 72, Gary Woodland 65 73 72, Brian Harman 66 68 76
211 Hudson Swafford 71 67 73, Chase Wright 67 71 73, Harris English 67 70 74, Brandon Harkins 70 67 74
212 Matt Jones (Aus) 65 73 74
216 Shintaro Ban 68 67 81
