Players Championship 2015 Leaderboard: Live Updates, Top Storylines for Saturday
With the third round of the 2015 Players Championship underway, Kevin Na and Jerry Kelly will look to complete the arduous task of holding onto a slim two-stroke lead throughout Saturday.
Na and Kelly entered the clubhouse as co-leaders after two days of work at TPC Sawgrass, but there's no shortage of top talent directly behind them. Many of the top names in the sport are nipping at their heels and eye Saturday as the opportunity to move into better contention for Sunday's final round.
The third round is dubbed moving day for a reason, as those near the top of the leaderboard move up and down at a dizzying pace to set the tone for Sunday. Take a look below for the latest leaders, as well as a glance at key storylines for Round 3.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Day 3 Storylines
Kevin Na's Tell-All Weekend
Three years ago, Kevin Na stood atop The Players leaderboard in the 2012 tournament, only to fall apart down the stretch and hit a final-round 76 that finished him in seventh. This time around, he has the chance for redemption.
Na's struggles could conceivably be attributed to nerves after winning just one PGA Tour event in his career, and he had no trouble admitting that the nerves played a factor back in 2012 after his second round Friday, adding his own two cents, per Golf Channel's Rex Hoggard.
“A lot of the guys when you have that they fall off the planet," he said. "They play poorly and nobody really sees and hears about it. The weird thing was I was playing some of my best golf and I couldn’t take the club back, and the whole world saw me do it.”
Now, the whole world—at least the golf world—has watched Na take a share of the lead with spectacular rounds of 67 and 69 thus far at TPC Sawgrass. But can he keep it up throughout the weekend?
At 31 years of age, Na shouldn't be affected by the stage the same way he was a few years ago. At the same time, opportunities to be atop The Players leaderboard don't come around very often for any golfer, and the nerves can inevitably settle in regardless of age.
A solid two rounds of golf may not be enough to win this one, but Na can hold his head high if he continues to play anywhere near the level he's been at.
Rickie Fowler Sticking it To the Tour
For some reason, the PGA Tour conducts a poll every year asking the pros who they believe the most overrated golfer on the tour is. For an even weirder reason, Rickie Fowler tied atop the list with 24 percent of the vote.
Unsurprisingly, Fowler is playing like a man who was just called the most overrated in his profession by his peers. He's showing no mercy, with two consecutive rounds of 69 that have him just two strokes shy of Na and Kelly's lead entering Saturday.
Fowler has come dangerously close to winning a major more times than you can count on one hand, finishing in the top five at every major tournament over the 2014 season. Somehow, that's resulted in him being overrated, as he joked to ESPN's Jason Sobel:
Ian Poulter, who tied with Fowler atop the list, is continuing to light a fire under the 26-year-old with some sarcastic jabs on Twitter:
Part of the overrated label following Fowler could be somewhat of a byproduct of those near-miss majors, as he's shown the ability to win such events and faltered on the back nine in some instances. He obviously can't win his first career major this weekend, but it's no secret that The Players is practically heralded as a major by many pros.
If he emerges this weekend and wins his second career title, the "overrated" story that dropped this week will be the stuff of legends.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
