Barracuda notebook: Byrd, Goosen fly up Montreux leaderboard

RENO — Saturday is considered moving day on the PGA Tour, and Jonathan Byrd and Retief Goosen made two of the biggest jumps of the day in the third round of the 17th annual Barracuda Championship

Goosen chalked up 16 points on Saturday at Montreux Golf & Country Club, to get to 33 points. He had eight birdies and no bogeys, making putts of 2, 6, 9, 14 and 18-feet, and he also had three two-putt birdies on par-5s. He entered the day in 26th place and is tied for seventh.

“Putting, at the end of the day, you know, besides hitting a lot good golf shots,” Goosen said when asked what was going well. ”It was nice to get in that flow again. I had a good round last week in the first round at Quicken Loans, and then after that fell apart.

“It’s nice now to actually have it on a Saturday and actually jump right up on the leaderboard. With this points system, you know, shooting eight birdies you move up very quickly.”

Byrd, who had 3 on Thursday and 9 on Friday, scored 15 points for a 54-hole total of 27 entering today’s final round.

“It’s sort of like last year,” Byrd said. “I barely made the cut and had a good run on Saturday and Sunday. I made a few more putts today. I caught up a little bit.”

Byrd birdied three of the par-5s, racking up two-putt birdies from 46, 62 and 42-feet, respectively. He also birdied No. 14 and 17, sinking putts from 3 and 11 feet.

His shot of the day came at No. 6 when he eagled the par-4 6th, knocking it in from 165 yards.

“Anytime you get five points that gives you some momentum,” Byrd said.

DAYTON CONNECTION

Courtesy of my good friend Larry Windsor, who’s the historian of PGA/web.com qualifying out at Dayton Valley, there were nine players who made the cut this weekend who played in the area at least once.

Besides second-round leader Andres Gonzales, who played at Dayton multiple times, there’s Tyrone Van Aswegen (co-low qualifier 2007), Alex Prugh, Matt Bettencourt, Zac Blair, Bill Lunde, Charlie Beljan, Rod Pampiing and Bryce Molder.

HOLE REPORT

The course played to a 69.393 on Friday, lowest of the tournament. That can be traced to the softness of the course thanks to the sporadic rain in the area.

The toughest holes on Friday were Nos. 1 and 16.

The par-4 1st played to a 4.082, yielding seven birdies, 53 pars, 13 bogeys and one double-bogey. The par-3 16th played to a 3.068 with 10 birdies, 49 pars, 13 bogeys and two double-bogeys.

The easiest holes were Nos. 13 and 8, both par-5s. The 13th played to a 4.324, giving up nine eagles, 40 birdies, 17 pars and eight bogeys. The eighth played to a 4.649, giving up one eagle, 31 birdies, 36 pars, five bogeys and one double-bogey.

AROUND THE COURSE

Andres Romero withdrew from the tournament late Saturday afternoon. According to reports, he injured his right hand after punching a golf course sign … Also, a volunteer driving a cart injured a spectator, which required medical personnel to be called … Zack Sucher delighted a young golf fan when he gave him his hat.

PAST CHAMPS

Two past champions — J.J. Henry and Steve Flesch — lead past winners after 54 holes. Henry is at plus-41, and Flesch, thanks to an eagle at 18, sits at 34.

Vaughn Taylor, the only two-time winner of the event is at 20 points followed by Chris Riley and Matt Bettencourt with 18. John Rollins has 13 points.