CIMB Classic: Perez pulls away from pack

Pat Perez holed just about every putt he took in the third round of the CIMB Classic.

Perez's round of 64 opened up a four-shot lead and has him as an odds-on favorite to win the event at -200.

That round basically cut this down to a five-player tournament with Xander Schauffele four back, Sung Kang five behind and Hideki Matsuyama and Keegan Bradley six back. No one else is closer than within nine strokes of Perez.

This course is playing too easy for Perez to back up at all. Even if he's off his game, it's not hard to see him shooting a round of 2- or 3-under. So if someone is going to track him down, they're going to need to be looking at a 64 or 65 just to force a playoff.

I'm just going to ride out Schauffele and see if he can come up with a great round. His two wins in 2017 were both comebacks, so he's shown the ability to play well on Sunday. He's also pretty well entrenched in that top five and has a five-shot cushion over sixth place, so we'd have to be pretty unlucky not to cash there.

After Schauffele, I'll also keep my eye on Jazz Janewattananond. The 21-year old from Thailand shot 66 and moved into seventh place. Hopefully he has one more solid round in him and can cash that 25-1 top-10 ticket from our long shot post earlier in the week.

My third-round leans ended up pushing. Anirban Lahiri beat Charl Schwartzel easily, but Scott Brown lost his 3-ball to Wesley Bryan by a shot. No more plays from me this week, I'm just crossing my fingers that Schauffele and Jazz go low.

Joshua has spent the last five years writing about sports and the last 10 years betting them, mostly on golf. He's one of approximately five people who will watch the PGA over the NFL in November. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaPerry22

Photo: © John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

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