Shell Houston Open 2017: Sung Kang Maintains Lead, Rickie Fowler Surges to 2nd

Rickie Fowler enjoyed a successful moving day at the 2017 Shell Houston Open with a five-under 67 at the Golf Club of Houston in Humble, Texas. His Saturday surge moved him into second place, three shots off the pace of 54-hole leader Sung Kang.

Fowler started the third round in mundane fashion with one birdie over his first four holes. The colorful 28-year-old American caught fire from there, rattling off seven more birdies over the next 10 holes to vault to the top of the leaderboard. Alas, a late double bogey soured an otherwise terrific round.

Kang, who carried a six-shot lead into Round 3, couldn't match his Friday 63. He spent most of the afternoon hovering around even par for the day, which left the door open for other contenders to create a more compelling finish in the final warm-up event before next week's Masters.

Here's a look at the updated leaderboard through 54 holes:

Rank	Golfer	Round 3	Overall
1	Sung Kang	-1	-17
2	Rickie Fowler	-5	-14
3	Russell Henley	-3	-13
4	Luke List	-7	-12
T5	Rafael Campos	-4	-8
T5	Daniel Berger	-1	-8
T5	Kyle Stanley	-1	-8
T8	Aaron Baddeley	1	-7
T8	Hudson Swafford	3	-7
T10	Jhonattan Vegas	-2	-6
T10	Michael Kim	-2	-6
T10	Andrew Loupe	E	-6
T10	Danny Lee	E	-6
T10	Stewart Cink	1	-6
T10	Jason Dufner	1	-6

Fowler is among the best active golfers without a major title on their resume. He finished in the top five at all four of the sport's marquee tournaments in 2014, but he's failed to crack the top 10 in his last eight outings over the past two years, including three missed cuts.

The Oklahoma State product will head into this season's major schedule in good form, regardless of how Sunday's round plays out. He'll earn his fifth top-10 result in eight PGA Tour starts, barring a complete collapse. He also hasn't finished worse than 16th aside from a missed cut in the Farmers Insurance Open.

His iron play and putting led the way Saturday. Even though he didn't have his best day off the tee, he still hit 83.3 percent of greens in regulation and gained 1.973 strokes on the greens.

The PGA Tour spotlighted one of his several clutch putts, this one at No. 14:

Fowler wasn't the only player to get himself back in the mix during the third round. Luke List posted a seven-under 65 to card the best score of the day.

The 32-year-old veteran got off to an inauspicious start with a bogey on the second, but he didn't drop a shot the rest of the round and collected eight birdies, highlighted by five straight starting at the sixth.

PGATour.com relayed his comments after the dazzling effort:

List and Fowler still head into Sunday having to chase Kang, though.

The South Korean upstart struggled to find a rhythm in Round 3 after opening the tournament with a pair of near-flawless rounds. He racked up three bogeys but still managed to finish the day with a one-under 71 to keep the lead.

Like Fowler, Kang has helped himself a lot on the greens this week, as the PGA Tour showcased:

Russell Henley is the other player to watch heading into Sunday's action. He's been a constant presence near the top of the leaderboard all week and is the only golfer in the field without a round in the 70s.

Meanwhile, Fowler has gone through some scorching hot streaks over the past three days, but his problems late in rounds could doom him Sunday. He's played the last four holes in a combined five-over par.