Despite a putter that cooled somewhat Saturday afternoon, Andrew Landry managed to fashion a two-under-par 70 on the Stadium Course in La Quinta, California that leaves him one stroke off the lead headed into the final round of the PGA Tour Career Builder Challenge.

Port Neches-Groves ex Landry, who played his college golf at Arkansas, trails fellow Razorback Austin Cook by one shot and is tied with former Texas A&M star Martin Piller at 198 after 54 holes. All three spent 2017 on the Web.com Tour and all won on that circuit last year.

Cook and Piller made up ground on Landry by playing the easier of the three courses in the Career Builder Rotation. Cook, who Landry helped recruit to Arkansas for one-time Lamar golf coach Brad McMakin, shot 64 for 197. Piller carded a 67.

“It is going to be a lot of fun and a real treat to be paired with a couple of guys I know really well and am comfortable with,” said Landry. “I like my chances if I start holing putts. I have putted well all week and rolled it well today, but I just couldn’t get much of anything to fall.”

There are no guarantees the tournament winner will come out of the final group. Two shots off Cook’s pace are world No. 3 John Rahm and Scott Piercy, players who have won before on the PGA Tour. All total there are 16 players within five shots of the lead.

“I will do what I always do, go out and play my game at my pace,” said Landry. “You will see me walking along behind Cookie and Piller most of the time. What works for me is the pace I walk, the tempo of my swing. I try to take it nice and slow. I want to routine everybody to death.”

With conditions Sunday expected to be more favorable, Landry said his target to score his first PGA victory is 66.

“I think if I go out and shoot 6-under, I will win,” he said. “I don’t expect to have  problems dealing with pressure. I will draw mainly on the two times I won on the Web.com Tour. If it happens, it happens. If not, I know my time is coming.”

Since he made only two birdies Saturday, the key for Landry to stay near the lead was to continue to avoid making a bogey. He is the only player in the field to not have a single bogey in 54 holes.

That, however, almost changed in a hurry on his very first hole of the day — the 460-yard, par-4 10th. With the wind blowing hard off the left, he hooked the tee shot and it bounced off rocks into the water.

“I thought the no-bogey string was over and I would have to start another one,” said Landry. “But I wasn’t going to let it get me down. There were a lot of holes left.”

Instead of making bogey after taking a penalty drop, however, Landry hit a 6-iron to 4 feet and made the putt.

“That was such a huge lift,” he said. “It felt like making a birdie.”

There would be one more huge par save. On the par-3 sixth (his 15th hole), Landry’s tee shot came up short and right. Facing a dicey down hill chip, he left his second just short of the green in the fringe.

No problem. He promptly rolled in an 18 footer.

“It was my best putt of the day — the only one of any length — and it was big,” he said. “Pretty much the same lift as making par out of the water.

Landry’s only birdies came from 7 feet on the par-4 second (his 11th hole) and from 6 feet, 8 inches, on the par-3 17th (his 8th). He missed very makable birdies on five other holes and again managed to birdie only one of the par-5 holes.

“The green complexes are different from the other two courses,” he explained. “Plus we had 50 mile per hour winds Saturday night and it really dried the greens out. It was hard to get the ball close to the hole. Most of my misses were from not getting the right lines. My speed was great until I got over aggressive on the last hole.”

Landry charged a 20-foot birdie putt, thinking the final round would be played in twosomes and he needed to get to 19-under to be paired with Cook. As a result, he had to make a 5 footer coming back to save par.

“It was a good putt, just a little too hard,” he said. “I really wanted to play with Cookie.”

Asked which of his former players he thought McMakin would be pulling for Sunday, Landry said it would probably him because Cook scored his first PGA Tour win in the RSM Classic in November.

While Landry will be striving to achieve his first PGA victory Sunday, fellow PNG ex Chris Stroud, who authored that feat last summer, will be trying to earn as big a check as he possibly can from well back in the pack.

Stroud, after a two-under-par 70 at La Quinta Country Club, is at 8-under 208 and made the cut on the number.