Dean & Deluca Invitational 2017: Webb Simpson Holds 2-Shot Lead After Round 3

Coming into this week, Webb Simpson had five missed cuts and just one top 10 in his 2016-17 PGA Tour season.

Now he's 18 holes away from running away with the Dean & Deluca Invitational.

Simpson carded a three-under 67 in Saturday's third round, putting him at nine under overall and two shots clear of the field. Paul Casey and Danny Lee sit at seven under in second place, while Stewart Cink and Kevin Kisner round out the top five at six under.

Simpson, who hasn't won since the 2013 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, has carded three consecutive under-par rounds at the Fort Worth, Texas, event. He began the day with a pair of birdies on Nos. 1 and 2 to secure a lead and then added two more on Nos. 10 and 11 after bogeying the par-three eighth.

Casey, who has just one PGA Tour victory despite a successful European career, came roaring back into contention with a stellar back nine. He reeled off birdies on Nos. 10, 11 and 13 and then finished with a birdie on No. 18. Having made the turn with a one-over 36, Casey went three under on the back (he bogeyed the 12th) to sit in a tie for second.

Lee, who shot a six-under 64 on Friday, had an up-and-down day trying to stay in contention. He opened with a pair of birdies and seemed to be picking up right where he left off before shooting two over the rest of the front nine to make the turn at even. Eight straight pars on the back nine later, Lee birdied the 18th to move into a tie with Casey.

Moving into the outer edges of contention was Jordan Spieth, who shot his second straight two-under 68 to move to four under. He's part of a five-way tie for eighth place that includes Sergio Garcia, who stumbled his way to a one-over 71.

Spieth, the defending champion of the event, spent most of his round narrowly missing out on birdie opportunities. The PGA Tour tracker's statistics show he actually lost strokes during the round due to his putting performance and was roughly a stroke-and-a-half worse than the field. That comes a day after Spieth had an excellent day on the short grass, a continued sign of his 2017 inconsistency.

Garcia had three bogeys against two birdies in a quietly frustrating round. He hit just 61.1 percent of his greens in regulation and two-putted a number of makable birdie attempts.

With Garcia and Spieth being the only consistently top-tier players in contention, it's not out of the realm of possibility that one of them walks away a winner. They are only three strokes removed from second place, and if Simpson has a bad day, things could get tense down the stretch.