Jason Day extends BMW Championship lead to six shots

If Jason Day was going to give away the BMW Championship, it would have happened Saturday.

Instead, the world’s third-ranked player increased his lead by one. On a day when the wind shifted and Conway Farms started to bite back, Day shot a two-under-par 69 to reach 20 under and take the largest 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour this season.

Day — who would move to No. 1 in the world with a win — will start Sunday’s final round six shots ahead of Scott Piercy and Daniel Berger and seven clear of current No. 1 Rory McIlroy. Day joked that it felt like he shot an 80 after opening the tournament with rounds of 61 and 63, but he was able to do enough.

“I feel like my mind was clouded,” said Day, who has won three of his last five tournaments, including his first major at the PGA Championship. “I knew from the start of the week that Saturday was going to be my toughest round, just because of the wind. I’ve never liked that wind.”

That left the door open, but nobody was able to do much with the opportunity.

Brendon Todd started the day in second place, but his approach to the par-four fourth squirted right into some bushes. He made a double bogey on his way to a 76 that put him outside of the top-30 cut for the final leg of the FedEx Cup next week.

Berger, a PGA Tour rookie, made three consecutive birdies on Nos. 14-16 but lost his chance to gain ground with a double on the par-four 10th.

Jordan Spieth was frustrated on the greens, yelling, “Why can’t I get a tap-in?” after a poor lag putt on the eighth and a three-putt from 29 feet on the ninth. He was the only player in the top 11 to shoot over par, settling for a one-over 72.

“It was definitely a bit more difficult, some tougher pins,” said Rickie Fowler, who is at 12 under after his second consecutive 66. “The wind was from a different direction we haven’t seen yet. It’s a little bit different golf course.”

If the first two days were about Day’s near-perfect play, Saturday was about escaping trouble.

Day made a rare mistake with his driver on the par-four 13th, hooking it way left and out of bounds. He managed to get his next ball in play and stuck his approach to salvage a bogey. He hit only seven of 14 fairways in the third round, making more bogeys (four) than he had in the first two rounds combined (two).

The key is what he did after those bogeys. Four out of six times this week, Day has followed with a birdie.

“I always say something like, ‘Every time you bogey, you always make a birdie after,’ “ Day said. “And when I say that, it kind of happens.”

Just in case Saturday’s round gave the field faint hope, Day dropped in a 20-foot birdie putt on No. 18. It was his second long make on the finishing hole in as many days.

“Playing the way he is,” Fowler said, “there’s not a whole lot we can do unless the tournament goes into seven, eight, nine, 10 rounds.”

jborneman@tribpub.com