Corales Puntacana Championship Round 3: Joel Dahmen Survives the Wind and Keeps a Three-Shot Lead

The wind finally showed up in Punta Cana, and for the first time all week, Joel Dahmen had to grind.

He did enough. Dahmen shot a 1-under 71 on a blustery Saturday at the Corales Puntacana Championship to reach 17-under 199 and carry a three-shot lead into the final round. Chan Kim (69), Michael Thorbjornsen (70) and Garrick Higgo (70) are tied for second at 14 under. Vince Whaley, Jeremy Paul and Ben Martin sit four back at 13 under.

The Bogey-Free Run Ends

Dahmen had not made a bogey through 36 holes. He made two in his first five on Saturday. The start was rough enough that a four-shot cushion started to look a lot thinner, and the man himself was not hiding from it afterward.

"It was a challenge, for sure," Dahmen said. "It's always tough teeing off with a bigger lead. I feel like I hit some good shots early that didn't end up in a good spot. Then I screwed up all the easy stuff early, so really frustrating."

Conditions did not help anybody. The field averaged 71.9 on Saturday, the toughest day of the week, up from 71.3 on Friday and 69.6 on Thursday, per The Spokesman-Review. Dahmen even swapped his usual bucket hat for a regular golf cap because of the wind.

How the Leader Stayed in Front

What kept Dahmen in front was the stretch in the middle of the back nine. On the 623-yard par-5 12th, he reached the green in two and two-putted for birdie. On the 13th, he knocked it to 5 feet from 88 yards and made that one too. Those back-to-back birdies rebuilt the margin at exactly the moment it was getting squeezed.

Then came the less glamorous part, the par saves. Dahmen scrambled for pars at the 11th, 15th and 17th, nearly holing a bunker shot on 17 before tapping in. He answered each of his three bogeys with a birdie and finished with four birdies in all. The driver kept him out of trouble, too: 13 of 14 fairways on a day when the wind punished anyone who wandered.

Three Chasers, Three Different Days

Kim's round had the most drama in a small space. A bogey at the third was immediately wiped out by an eagle at the fourth, and two more birdies got Kim into the tie for second and into the final pairing alongside Dahmen on Sunday.

"Somehow I got it to stop pretty nicely and read the putt really well," Kim said of the approach at the fourth, per Field Level Media.

For a few holes, Thorbjornsen looked ready to turn this into a real fight. He birdied three of his first four holes to get to 15 under, then made double bogeys at the fifth and eighth. To his credit, he steadied himself and came home in 3-under 33 on the back nine to stay three back. "Nothing's guaranteed or given out here," Thorbjornsen said, per Field Level Media.

Higgo was the steadiest of the group, which also made one slip sting. The South African lefty birdied the 13th to reach 15 under, then three-putted the 14th for bogey and settled for 70.

Whaley Posts the Number

The low round of the day belonged to Whaley, who shot 66 with seven birdies, including three in a four-hole stretch on the front nine, and climbed 17 spots into a tie for fifth. In this wind, that was a serious round.

"There's no slowing down, you've got to keep going and just see how low you can go," Whaley said, per Field Level Media.

Paul and Martin each shot 67 to join Whaley four back. Further down, Seamus Power shot 71 and sits in a tie for 11th, seven off the pace, per RTE.

Sunday's Setup

The stakes have not changed, but they are now very real for a handful of players. The winner takes a two-year TOUR exemption, a spot in next month's PGA Championship and 300 FedExCup points. For Dahmen, who barely held on to his full card last season, a second career title would come at the same place as the first and finish off a wire-to-wire week. For Kim, Thorbjornsen and Higgo, three shots is not much ground to make up on a course that has been getting harder each day.

The forecast calls for more of the same, with winds of 10 to 20 mph and gusts to 25, per The Spokesman-Review. Dahmen and Kim go off in the final pairing. Saturday proved the lead can survive a rough start. Eighteen more holes decide the rest.

Catch up on the week in our Round 1 recap and Round 2 recap. Full scoring is on the official PGA TOUR leaderboard (opens in a new tab), and the TOUR's Round 3 recap (opens in a new tab) has more.

Sources: PGA TOUR (Round 3 recap and leaderboard), AP, Field Level Media, The Spokesman-Review, RTE. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: PGA TOUR.