Kyle Westmoreland earns first career 54-hole lead at The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club

Things to Know

• Kyle Westmoreland cards the low round of the day with a 4-under 68 to claim his first career 54-hole lead
• Sam Bennett and Walker Lee, college roommates and teammates at Texas A&M, join Westmoreland in the final grouping
• Bennett, winner of the 2022 U.S. Amateur and low amateur at the 2023 Masters Tournament, is making his Korn Ferry Tour debut this week
• Lee, in his second career start on the Tour, has 16 birdies this week, tied for the most by any player
• Korn Ferry Tour winner Trevor Werbylo cards his third straight 2-under 70 and sits two shots off the lead entering Wednesday’s final round

Third-Round Lead Notes

• Three third-round leaders/co-leaders to win The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club:
  • Ben Silverman (2023), Jared Wolfe (2020), Andrew Landry (2017)
• Zero third-round leaders/co-leaders to win on Tour in 2024

Kyle Westmoreland (Leader/-8)

• Enters the final round with a two-stroke lead following a third-round 4-under 68, the lowest round by any player Tuesday
• Marks his first 54-hole lead in his Korn Ferry Tour career
  • Previous best 54-hole position was solo second at the 2023 UNC Health Championship presented by STITCH (finished solo fifth)
• Earned the outright 18-hole lead earlier this week with a first-round 6-under 66
• Making the 38th career Korn Ferry Tour start this week and his second ever appearance at The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club (finished 76th in 2022)
• Bidding for his first career win in a PGA TOUR-sanctioned event (82 total starts across multiple tours)
• At last week’s event, The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay, placed solo fifth which matched his career best finish
• Played primarily on the PGA TOUR last year after earning his first TOUR card following the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour season
• In 32 starts made during the 2022-23 PGA TOUR season, Westmoreland made 10 cuts, and his best finish of the season was a T27 at the 2022 Cadence Bank Houston Open
  • Finished the 2022-23 season 196th in the FedExCup Standings
• Earned his first PGA TOUR card via the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour Finals, finishing No. 25 within the group of 25 players awarded TOUR cards, becoming the first Air Force Academy graduate to earn a TOUR card
  • In the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour regular season , Westmoreland made 26 starts and finished No. 60 on the regular season points list to earn a place in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals
• In 37 career starts on the Korn Ferry Tour dating back to 2017, he has five top-10 finishes and nine top-25s
• While playing collegiately at Air Force from 2010-14, he tallied five individual victories
• Following graduation from the Academy in 2014, served a five-year term and attained the rank of captain in the United States Air Force
• Plays from Daniel Island, South Carolina

Quotables

Kyle Westmoreland on staying even keeled in tough conditions… “You're going to make mistakes, right? You're going to hit bad shots. For me, it's knowing I'm going to hit bad shots and just hoping that I recover from them. Can't do it that hole, do it the next hole. If not the next hole, then somewhere down the line. But when it gets hard when conditions are tough like this, basically just keep your nose down, keep moving forward and add it up at the end.”

Westmoreland on his biggest takeaways from his PGA TOUR rookie season last year… “I think the biggest is just believing in yourself, believing that how you do it is good enough. I got a good taste of that last year and really it was a great learning experience for me. By the end of the year, started trending in a very good direction and that was just because of having belief in myself and how I play the game and trusting that that's good enough.”

Sam Bennett on his third-round 3-under 69… “Yeah, it's nice. My first Korn Ferry Tour event, excited to be here in the Bahamas. We've had some really tough conditions and today I played really good on the front, took advantage of the holes, the downwind holes. Then on the back out here you're just kind of holding on. No. 11 through 15 are all into the wind. Made a double and then a bogey and then was able to make three in a row to kind of fight back and give myself a shot going into tomorrow. I'm just happy to be in contention come the final day. It's been since last February that I've had a chance to win a golf tournament so I'm excited to find myself in the heat of things.”

Bennett on playing in the final group with college teammate Walker Lee… “Walker's great. He was my roommate in college for just over two years, so we're really tight. Hope he finishes strong coming in. He's great. I'd say my game fits these conditions good and probably fits his even better. He's really creative, can flight it down and he's got a lot of shots.”

Notes

• Alongside Kyle Westmoreland in the final grouping will be Sam Bennett and Walker Lee, college teammates as well as roommates, while together at Texas A&M University
• In his first career Korn Ferry Tour start, Sam Bennett (T2/-6) cards rounds of 70-71-69 and enters the final round two shots behind the leader
  • A highly decorated amateur, Bennett turned professional in 2023 after playing five years collegiately at Texas A&M (2018-23), where his honors include 2022 Southeastern Conference Golfer of the Year, All-Southeastern Conference First Team, PING First-Team All-American, as well as being a finalist for both the Ben Hogan Award and Fred Haskins Award
  • Won the 2022 U.S. Amateur to earn exemptions into the 2023 Masters Tournament and 2023 U.S. Open; at the 2023 Masters Tournament, Bennett earned low amateur honors, finishing T16 at 2-under par
  • Finished his senior season at Texas A&M ranked No. 5 in the PGA TOUR University Class of 2023
  • After turning pro last year, Bennett made 10 starts on the PGA TOUR and logged one top-25 finish (T20 at the 2023 RBC Canadian Open)

• Making his second ever start on the Korn Ferry Tour, 25-year-old Walker Lee (T2/-6) cards a third-round 1-under 71 and sits two shots behind the lead after 54 holes
  • Lee earned status this season by finishing No. 3 in the 2023 Totalplay Cup standings on PGA TOUR Latinoamérica (now PGA TOUR Americas after merging with PGA TOUR Canada)
  • Turned professional in 2022 after playing collegiately at Texas A&M for five seasons (2018-22) where he earned PING Third-Team All-America honors and Second-Team All-SEC honors
  • Also college teammates with 2023 Korn Ferry Tour graduate Chandler Phillips
  • As an amateur, Lee was a member of the United States men’s team at the 2022 Palmer Cup alongside Sam Bennett and Gordon Sargent, current No. 1 ranked amateur in the world; additionally, he qualified for the 2017 U.S. Open at the age of 19

• Trevor Werbylo (T2/-6) cards his third consecutive 2-under 70 this week after rolling in three birdies, three bogeys and an eagle at the 560-yard par-5 first
  • Werbylo is in his second season on the Korn Ferry Tour and first since 2022 when he finished 16th on the season-long points list to earn his first career PGA TOUR card
  • In his rookie season on TOUR last year, Werbylo logged 31 starts and made 14 cuts, with his best finish being a T27 at the 2023 Valspar Championship
    • Finished the 2022-23 PGA TOUR season No. 188 in the FedExCup Standings
• 36-hole co-leader Ross Steelman (T6/-3) carded a third-round 2-over 74 via two birdies against four bogeys and falls to T6 after three rounds
  • Steelman, making his 10th career start of his Korn Ferry Tour this week, is coming off a solo third finish at last week’s The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay, his first career top-10
• Aldrich Potgeiter (T6/-3), the youngest player in the field at 19 years old, carded a third-round 1-under 71 and enters the final round five shots behind the leader
  • Potgieter turned professional last year after appearances as an amateur at the 2023 Masters Tournament, U.S. Open, and the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday
  • Potgieter won the 2022 Amateur Championship at age 17, making him the second-youngest winner in the event’s history