Fort Worth, Texas — With $12.7 million in career earnings on the PGA Tour, Tim Clark has the dubious distinction of winning the most
money without winning an event. Now he’s got a great chance to let someone else carry that burden. Clark shot a 4-under 66 on Saturday in the third round of the Crowne Plaza Invitational to take a two-stroke lead into the final round. The 33-year-old South African has been near the top of the leaderboard all week, then finally moved into first place all by himself with a birdie on 11. After a string of pars, he birdied 18 to dip to 17-under 193 and stretch his lead. That kind of finish also might be the momentum-extender to help him snap his 0-for-183 skid. “It’s tough to win out here everyone knows it,” said Clark, 63rd on the Tour’s career money list. “Hopefully, I do get that win sometime and it makes things easier. That’s all I can hope for.” Reason to believe he can do it starts with his streak of eight straight rounds in the 60s at the Colonial Country Club. That includes all of last year’s event, when he walked off the course tied for first but wound up second when Phil Mickelson birdied the final hole. It was the sixth runner-up finish of Clark’s career another came at the 2006 Masters. That giant 0-fer is reason enough to question whether Clark can do it. There’s also this nugget: Clark’s only other 54-hole lead was at the 2008 St. Jude Classic. He opened that final round with a triple bogey, shot 6 over and finished 18th.
“It’s never easy being the front-runner. It’s a little bit tougher than coming from a few shots back,” he said. “But I have led a few tournaments on the European tour going into the last round and have been able to shoot a good score. It’s about staying calm and not getting too far ahead of yourself.