Jeremy Paul, Kevin Roy share one-shot lead after Round 3 at The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic

Third-Round Leaderboard

Jeremy Paul 70-67-67 – 204 (-12)
Kevin Roy 67-68-69 – 204 (-12)
Fred Biondi 69-67-69 – 205 (-11)
Tim Widing 72-65-69 – 206 (-10)
Cristobal Del Solar 67-69-70 – 206 (-10)
Two players tied 207 (-9)

Things to Know

• Jeremy Paul and Kevin Roy share the lead entering the final round, marking the first 54-hole lead/co-lead for either player on the Korn Ferry Tour
• Paul cards the low round of the day with a bogey-free 5-under 67
• Fred Biondi, No. 2 in the PGA TOUR University Class of 2023, enters the final round one shot off the lead
• 18-hole co-leader and outright 36-hole leader Chandler Blanchet cards a third-round 4-over 76 and falls to T8
• Logan McAllister leads all players with 19 birdies this week and sits T12 after 54 holes
• Logan McAllister leads all players with 19 birdies this week and sits T12 after 54 holes. Each of the top 11 players on the leaderboard are bidding for their first Korn Ferry Tour title
• The second round concluded Tuesday morning and the 36-hole cut was made at 1-under par with 65 professionals making it through to the third round

Third-Round Lead Notes

• Four third-round leaders/co-leaders to win The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald BayTommy Gainey (2020), Marty Dou (2019), Sungjae Im (2018) and Kyle Thompson (2017)
• Nine third-round leaders/co-leaders to win on Tour throughout 2023 season

Charting the Co-Leaders (stats entering the week)

Kevin Roy (Co-leader/-12)

• Cards a third-round 3-under 69 with four birdies (Nos. 1, 8, 9, 17) against one bogey at the par-4 10th
• Opened the week with rounds of 67 and 68 and has remained inside the top 10 after each of the first three rounds
• Four bogeys through 54 holes this week are tied for the second-fewest holes of bogey-or-worse by any player, only trailing Hank Lebioda’s three
• Marks the first 54-hole lead/co-lead of his Korn Ferry Tour career
  • Previous best position after 54 holes on the Korn Ferry Tour was T3 (2022 Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper, finished T13)
  • Only previous lead he held on the Korn Ferry Tour was a T1 after the first round of the 2022 Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas Wichita Open Benefitting KU Wichita Pediatrics
• Making his 80th career Korn Ferry Tour start this week and his second appearance at The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay (finished T19 in 2020)
• Played on the PGA TOUR during the 2022-23 season where he made three top-25 finishes in 31 starts, with his best being a T8 at the 2023 Butterfield Bermuda Championship
• Earned his first PGA TOUR card after finishing No. 24 on the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour Points List
  • In 22 starts that season, Roy logged four top-10s and seven top-25s, highlighted by his runner-up finish at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas Wichita Open Benefitting KU Wichita Pediatrics
• During the 2020-21 season, played in all 46 events recording four top-10s, 14 top-25s, and 29 made cuts to finish No. 48 in the final standings
• Originally from Syracuse, New York and now resides in Lakewood Ranch, Florida
• Played collegiately at Long Beach State University where he earned First Team All-Big West honors as a senior
  • College teammates at Long Beach State University with PGA TOUR winner Xander Schauffele

Jeremy Paul (Co-leader/-12)

• Recorded a third-round bogey-free 5-under 67 with birdies coming at the par-5 first, par-3 13th, and three par 4s (Nos. 4, 12, 17)
  • Marked the only bogey-free round recorded by any player in the third round
• Marks his first 54-hole lead/co-lead on the Korn Ferry Tour
  • Previous best 54-hole position was T3 at the 2022 Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation where he eventually finished T5
• Making third appearance at The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay (MC/2022; T31/2023)
• Has made 51 Korn Ferry Tour starts over the past two seasons and tallied 10 top-25 finishes, including four inside the top 10
  • Best finish of his career was a T3 at the 2022 The Ascendant presented by Blue
  • Finished No. 56 on the Points List last season and No. 37 in 2022
• Prior to 2022, Paul played one season on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2017, but lost status after recording zero top-25 finishes in 12 starts
• Plays from Heidelberg, Germany and resides in Scottsdale, Arizona
• Twin brother, Yannik, is a past winner on the DP World Tour and finished T8 at last week’s Dubai Invitational
• Played collegiately at the University of Colorado where he collected three wins and 21 top-10s in 47 starts, while leading the team in scoring all four years en route to All-American honorable mention honors in 2016

Quotables

Jeremy Paul on his 3-under back nine… “It was nice, made the turn, a few holes there, the wind's kind of off the right and I kind of like to hit draw so it was really nice, I could always hit kind of a little bit to the right and let the wind take it. Hit a couple of good shots on Nos. 12 and 13, and made some good birdies there. Then made another nice birdie on 17. The last four holes are not easy, blowing pretty hard off the ocean. I never really got ahead of myself, I was just trying to hit good shots because you know what's required on this golf course, especially you don't have a lot of room with the wind blowing off the ocean.”

Paul on changes he’s made to his game entering this season… “I started working with a mental coach about a year ago. I feel like that's the difference-maker if you're playing on Tour because everybody out here can play. I think that's what I've been working on a lot recently in the last year, and so far, so good. It's a long progress, a long work and just trying to work on myself, and get in a good mindset. Especially in conditions like this, it helps because you're not thinking ahead, you know you have to hit good shots. It's a lot of golf still left, so I'm not really thinking about anything right now. I just want to hit good golf shots and see where it ends up at the end.”

Kevin Roy on changes to his mental approach… “I've been working pretty hard on my mental game with my mental coach, Brian Cain. It's nice to see some good stuff coming from it. Try not to get too high when things are going good and not to get too low when things are going bad. Just trying to kind of, what we call it, stay in the green light and I think I've done a really good job at that so far. Whatever happens tomorrow, we're just going to try to stay in the green light as much as possible.”

Notes

• Fred Biondi (3rd/-11) entered the day T5 and four strokes back of the lead before carding a 3-under 69 to move into solo third and one back of the lead
  • Holed four birdies (Nos. 12, 15, 16, 18) and an eagle (No. 1) against three bogeys (Nos. 5, 7, 9)
  • One of just two players to record an eagle in the third round (Thomas Rosenmueller)
  • Marks his best 54-hole placement in a PGA-sanctioned event (previous best: 20th at the 2023 RSM Classic, finished T23)
  • Played collegiately at the University of Florida where he won the individual national title at the 2023 NCAA Championship and finished No. 2 in the PGA TOUR University Class of 2023, only behind Texas Tech alum and PGA TOUR winner Ludvig Åberg

• 26-year-old Tim Widing (T4/-10) opened his round with three birdies in his first four holes (Nos. 1, 2, 4) and rolled in two more birdies on the day (Nos. 9, 12) against two bogeys (Nos. 5, 11)
• Widing finished T25 in this event in 2023, his first career top-25 finish on the Korn Ferry Tour
• Second-year member Cristobal Del Solar (T4/-10) tied for the most birdies in the third round with six (Nos. 1, 8, 9, 13, 14, 16) against four bogeys to card a 2-under 70
  • Myles Creighton (T25/-3), Frankie Capan III (T44/E) and Andrew Kozan (T44/E) matched Del Solar’s six birdies
  • This is Del Solar’s first time inside the top five after 54 holes in a Korn Ferry Tour event
• Quade Cummins (T6/-9) carded his low round of the tournament with a 4-under 68 and climbed 15 spots after beginning the round in T21
  • Carded a 3-under 69 in his opening round, followed by a second-round 2-under 70
  • Making his second appearance in this event (finished T31 last year)
• First-round co-leader KK Limbhasut (T6/-9) turned in a third-round even-par 72 to put him four strokes back of the lead
• Limbhasut concluded the final two holes of his second round Tuesday morning, making a birdie on No. 8 to card a 1-under 71, putting him 9-under par heading into the third round
• 18-hole co-leader and 36-hole solo leader Chandler Blanchet (T8/-8) enters the final round four shots back after a 4-over 76 in the third round
• Of the 18 players who enter the final round at 6-under par or better, Max McGreevy (T12/-7) is the only one with a Korn Ferry Tour title in his career (2020 Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper)
• Of the seven players sitting T6 or better on the leaderboard, six different nationalities are represented:
  • Brazil (Biondi), Germany (Paul), Chile (Del Solar), Sweden (Widing), Thailand (Limbhasut) and the United States (Roy, Cummins)
• Logan McAllister (T12/-7) leads all players this week with 19 birdies through 54 holes
• Bud Cauley (T25/-3), making his first start in a PGA TOUR-sanctioned event since 2020, is 3-under par entering the final round
  • An alum of the University of Alabama, Cauley is a past champion on the Korn Ferry Tour (2014 Hotel Fitness Championship) and played primarily on the PGA TOUR from 2011-20, making 183 total starts on TOUR during that stretch and recording 23 top-10 finishes