What They're Saying: Rocket Mortgage Classic Day 3

Tony Finau and Taylor Pendrith took center stage during the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club Saturday afternoon.

The final pairing amazed the excited crowd in Detroit with long drives, quality recoveries and putts that found the center of the cup with regularity.

Pendrith used back-to-back birdies on holes 14, 15, 16 to tie Finau at 20 under with two holes remaining on the afternoon. He shot a third-round (66) to remain at the top of the leaderboard.

Finau, who is looking to win in consecutive weeks on the PGA Tour, was able to hit 16 out of 18 greens in regulation to shoot (65) Saturday.

With a birdie at No. 17, Finau took the lead, but could not sink a birdie putt at No. 18 to take a one-stroke lead.

Both will head into Sunday at 21 under and will again play in the final pairing.

Moving day saw No. 4 ranked Patrick Cantlay (-15) move into contention, as he shot a 6 under round of (66). Last year's FedEx Cup champion now sits in fifth place heading into Sundays final round.

Here is a sample of what was said following the third-round at this week's PGA Tour stop.

Patrick Cantlay

On what's been working well:

Cantlay: Yeah, I think I got the lines off the tee and feel comfortable around the golf course. Just need to roll in a few more putts and keep driving the golf ball in the fairway.

Sunday mindset:

Cantlay: I've got to get off to a hot start and keep the pedal down. Obviously this golf course has no defense and there's going to be a ton of birdies out there.

Cam Davis

On first three rounds of tournament:

Davis: Today was really solid. I mean, it was a nice bounce-back from yesterday where I felt like for the first, at least the first few holes I feel like I completely lost my swing, I had no idea where it went. On the back got some good stuff going yesterday afternoon and then brought it into today and made some putts with it today as well. A little sour end there with a wedge, but 17 really good solid holes. But I'm not on the number anymore, I've kind of worked my way back into the middle of the pack somewhere, which is nice.

Specific adjustments made between Rounds 2 and 3:

Davis: Just more of a relaxing round. You're playing in the morning, the greens are smoother, there's no wind, you pick your number. If you hit it solid, you know where it's going to go rather than being left up to the wind above the trees that you can't really feel. Today was just a little bit more relaxed on the greens. I wasn't trying to make a putt to hopefully make the cut on the number, it was just trying and make some progress and have a good round. Yeah, it just worked a lot better than it did yesterday.

Tony Finau

Round 3 thoughts:

Finau: It was nice. No bogeys up to this point on the scorecard in the tournament, which is nice. I think it's a golf course that yields some birdies. You'll have some looks, but to not make any mistakes to this point is nice and I think that's the main reason I've kind of found myself on top of the leaderboard.

On benefits of driving accuracy:

Finau: I think that's a big reason I've been hitting so many greens. I'm just hitting a lot more fairways than I'm accustomed to or than I have in the past. This golf course really opens up to you if you hit it in the short grass and it definitely has for me these first three rounds.

Plans after his round on Saturday evening:

Finau: Nothing really changes no matter how I'm playing. I'm going to grab a little food, probably do a little practice after this, grab a little food, talk to my kids and get some rest. We've got a long morning again just like we did today. They told us we're going to have around the same tee time tomorrow, it's going to be another late one. There's a lot of time in between rounds but I don't mind it.

Taylor Pendrith

Recapping his third-round:

Pendrith: Obviously he made a ton of birdies and I finished the round with a lot of birdies, so it was fun. We were going back and forth. Tony bombs it off the tee and I hit it far as well, so it was fun, kind of similar games I guess, and we attacked it very well.

On being in contention:

Pendrith: Obviously, this course has shown some low scores, so you've got to just keep making birdies if you want to stay in it. I got off to a decent start today. I missed a short one on 3, maybe a little nerves, but hung in there. The course gives up a lot of birdies, so you're going to need something similar to that tomorrow to have a chance. But Tony's playing great and it's fun to be out there. The crowds are unreal, so I'm looking forward to it.

Mentality heading into final round:

Pendrith: I probably have more pressure just because I've never won before and Tony's a multiple winner and he won last week and he's playing great. I've got a nice opportunity tomorrow being tied with him going into Sunday, so there's 18 holes of golf left and who knows what will happen. I feel like my game's in a good spot, I'm driving it well, I'm hitting my wedges good, it's nice to see some putts go in. We'll see. It will be a fun experience and just looking forward to competing and see what happens.