PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Chattanooga native Keith Mitchell capped a magnificent run through the “Snake Pit” on the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook on Saturday with a shot he never saw go in.
His 7-iron play from the 18th fairway one-hopped into the hole for an eagle, a third round of 5-under-par 66 and a two-shot lead in the PGA Tour’s Valspar Championship.
Mitchell was among a dozen players on the fringe of contention at a tournament so tight that it began with all 77 players who made the cut separated by a mere six shots.
That changed when he went 3-2-2 through the closing stretch of the course, the first player to do that in the tournament’s history. The 32-year-old former Baylor School and University of Georgia standout holed a birdie putt just inside 15 feet on the 16th hole, hit a 6-iron shot to inside three feet for a birdie on the par-3 17th, then holed out on the 18th hole with a 7-iron from about 151 yards up a steep hill.
That put Mitchell at 10-under 203 through 54 holes, two shots clear of fellow American player Peter Malnati (68), Ireland’s Seamus Power (68) and Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes (69).