Aldrich Potgieter, the PGA Tour’s youngest player and its biggest hitter, had five straight birdies to surge into the third-round lead and finished with a 7-under 65 on Saturday for a two-shot edge at the Rocket Classic in Detroit.

The 20-year-old tour rookie started the week averaging 326.6 yards off the tee — several yards longer than Rory McIlroy — and will be shooting for his first win on tour Sunday.

Max Greyserman (66), Jake Knapp (66), Mark Hubbard (67), Andrew Putnam (67) and Chris Kirk (69) were two shots back. Three more players were another stroke behind.

Collin Morikawa, the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 5 in the world, shot a 68 to start the final round four shots back.

“The leaderboard’s so stacked,” Potgieter said.

Potgieter was born in South Africa, moved to Australia when he was 8 and returned to South Africa at age 17 because the COVID-19 pandemic limited his chances to compete. In a nod to his native country, his white golf shoes have the South African flag on the outside of his heels.

He won the British Amateur at the age of 17 and became the youngest Korn Ferry Tour winner last year, paving the way for him to become the second-youngest player to earn a PGA Tour card through the minor league just after his 20th birthday. The youngest was Jason Day, who was 19 in 2007.

Potgieter was in a position to win earlier this year.

He lost a playoff at the Mexico Open in February, when Brian Campbell got a big break when his tee shot on the second extra hole went off tree and back in play. He missed the next four cuts and seven of eight before he was tied for sixth at the Charles Schwab Challenge last month in his last PGA Tour start last month.

While the Detroit Golf Club is one of the easiest courses on the PGA Tour, it will likely be challenging for the world’s 123rd-ranked player to hold off the competition.

Potgieter’s driver certainly gives him a shot, but he also flashed some of his finesse during his birdie streak on the front nine in the third round.

He opened with a birdie on a 35-foot shot from a bunker. His approach on the par-5 seventh was buried in the rough, pin high and 78 feet to the right of the cup. He lofted the ball past the hole and it rolled back toward it, setting up an eight-foot birdie putt.

LPGA tour

Sarah Schmelzel and Albane Valenzuela took the third-round lead Saturday in the Dow Championship, shooting a 2-under 68 in alternate-shot play to move into position for their first LPGA Tour victories.

Schmelzel and Valenzuela had a 13-under 197 total at Midland Country Cup in Midland, Michigan heading into the better-ball final round. They opened with an alternate-shot 68 on Thursday and had a best-ball 61 on Friday.

“You’re kind of on pins and needles most of the day, just hoping you don’t get your partner in trouble,” Schmelzel said. “Just super solid. I feel like we had really good attitudes throughout the entire day. I think both of us took every single shot as it came.”

The teams of Jin Hee Im-Somi Lee (68) and Manon De Roey-Pauline Roussin-Bouchard (69) were a stroke back.

“I’m very proud of us,” De Roey said. “We hung in there. We fought until the end.”

LIV GOLF

Patrick Reed shot a 4-under 68 to take a three-stroke lead at LIV Golf Dallas in a bid for his first victory on the Saudi-funded tour.

Tied for the first-round lead with 4Aces teammate Harold Varner III after an opening 67, Reed had six birdies and two bogeys to reach 9-under 135 at Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas. Reed, 34, won the 2018 Masters and has nine PGA Tour victories.

Paul Casey (67) and Abraham Ancer (69) were tied for second. Varner shot 72 to drop into a tie for third at 5 under with Tyrrell Hatton (65), Richard Bland (69) and David Puig (69).

Bryson DeChambeau had his second straight 72.

The 4Aces had a four-stroke lead in the team competition.

PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS

Padraig Harrington chipped in from 20 yards off the green on the 18th hole to salvage a floundering round and pull back into a tie for the lead with Stewart Cink and Mark Hensby at the U.S. Senior Open in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Harrington’s chip-in for birdie capped a round of 2-under 68 and put him in the same spot he was in to start — tied with the same two opponents he played with over another tricky day at the Broadmoor that included wind, rain, even a flash of lightning that pulled the players off the course for a half-hour.