Ryo Ishikawa has a great chance to make 2 tournament wins in a row (7 weeks off in between). If he makes it, it will be his first. Ryo started off his Round 3 with 2 shot lead as solo leader. He drains the 2-meter on the 1st hole to make birdie start, then he also taps in for a birdie on 5th, where he had 4 shots lead at the times.
"I had a difficult round today", says Ryo in spite of making his lead bigger to 3 shots.

As more his lead widens, he had hard time controlling his mental toughness he says.
"It is not comfortable to start as a leader. I could never get uses to the pressure to be the leader."

Ryo has already marked 15 victories, he should be used to lead by now.
"It's not so often that I lead in only few shots. It's been a while to play under this pressure. I was nerve wrecked."

On 11 and 13 holes, he got caught in the water. He was leading, but that made his strategy wonder, be safe or be aggressive.
On 11th, he got wet but his 3rd shot was magnificent and he saved par. On 13th, where he plunged on his 2nd shot from 250 yards out, but his 4th shot from 70 yards by a wedge got to 1-meter of the pin and saved par again.

He avoided bogeying the holes, but Ryo recalls, "If you are leading the tournament, you should never go too aggressive and find waters. But I don't have that type of techniques. I just have to make things worse for me today. I felt quite upset the whole day."

From this year, Par 4 17th, 282 yards became reachable hole.
"If I shot with a 3W, I have to go 150%. But if I chose the Driver, I would go over the green. If this was the final round and I was chasing the leader, I would aim for making an eagle even though there was a risk for bogey. But on Round 3 and I am being the leader, I couldn't find the best answer."

Ryo eventually decided to lay up and his iron shot got to 2-meter for a birdie.
"I still don't know if that decision was the right answer, even though I birdied that hole."

Ryo finished the round with bogey free 67, but his feelings didn't brighten up. He will be leading with 3 shot and everyone will try to catch him tomorrow.
"Things doesn't actually change whether you are running away for chasing. But I just can't help putting too much pressure on myself and make unnecessary dramatic situations. I really don't know what will happen tomorrow."