A chip-in birdie to kick-start Saturday's third round at the 3M Open seemed a distant memory as Frankie Capan III moseyed through the ninth fairway toward his golf ball, resting on the green some 40 feet away from the cup. Capan's second shot at the difficult ninth came up short and wet, meaning the upcoming putt was for a front-nine-closing bogey.
Calmly, the Stillwater product playing on a sponsor's exemption in front of scores of onlookers lined up his try and buried the roll. It sent cheers worthy of a double eagle echoing through the TPC Twin Cities grounds.
"Yeah how about that?" Capan said after his round. "They seem to go in when they're for bogey."
You'll have to excuse Capan — who made his first PGA Tour cut Friday — for being a shade disappointed despite his relative inexperience in PGA Tour events. Saturday is Moving Day on Tour, and the 23-year-old went backward.
After that bogey on No. 9, Capan hit all nine greens in regulation on the back nine. He walked way with seven pars, one birdie and a bogey to show for it.
He signed for a 2-over-par 73 and enters Sunday at 4 under for the tournament.
"I had a lot of shots that, maybe a yard here or a yard there it's a different story," Capan said. "Even then things just kind of felt off. Just could not get anything to fall."
As has been the case since Korn Ferry Tour Q-School last fall, Capan's mother, Charlynn, has worked as his caddie.
