Fowler Takes Outright Lead at Record-Breaking Third Round

The third round of the 2018 Waste Management Phoenix Open exceeded ambitious attendance expectations, drawing 216,818 fans to TPC Scottsdale – a new single-day touranment record. The attendance mark bested the previous year’s Saturday attendance by nearly 12,000 and is the third-straight year third-round attendance surpassed 200,000 fans, as well as the third straight year the Saturday attendance record was broken.

The total attendance for the week sits at 654,906 – after six days with Sunday’s final round still to play – and is only 528 fans away from the weekly attendance record of 655,434 set just last year. The average final-round attendance over the last five years is 65,312.

Rickie Fowler sits alone atop the leaderboard at 14-under par after a stellar third round, that included three birdies in the final three holes to take the outright lead. Jon Rahm, Chez Reavie and Bryson DeChambeau are one shot off Fowler’s pace at 13-under, and Phil Mickelson and Daniel Berger are still in the mix at 12-under.

A sea of GREEN dominated Saturday’s record-breaking crowd for the eighth-annual GREEN OUT day. The Thunderbirds will donate $35,000 each to Bonneville Environmental Foundation’s “Change the Course,” Arizona Recycling Coalition and the Arizona Chapter of Solid Waste Association of North America (AZ SWANA). Over eight years, GREEN OUT efforts at the Waste Management Phoenix Open has now raised $595,000 for local environmental organizations.

Final-round, heart-pumping action begins Sunday at 9:05 a.m. with the leaders – Rickie Fowler, Jon Rahm and Chez Reavie – teeing off at 10:55 a.m.