Chris Stroud gave NBC’s Johnny Miller something to remember on his way into retirement Saturday afternoon at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Then he game himself a memorable 37th birthday present one day early with a birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie finish good a for a 67 and a tie for 12th.

Rickie Fowler was the runaway leader after a 7-under-par 64 left him at 193. He’s had rounds of 64-65-64. Matt Kuchar is four back at 197. Stroud’s total, after rounds of 71-66-67, is 204.

Stroud, who had rebounded from an early double bogey to reach the par-3 16th one-under-par, put on quite a show on golf’s loudest, most notorious hole. With the 50,000 or so crazies gathered at 16 alternate booing, razzing and sometimes cheering players as them came through, Stroud inspired the loudest roars of the day.

First, he stuck his wedge to 9 feet on the 123-yard hole surround by massive grandstands. That stirred things up. But it was what he did next that stole the show, and got Miller’s attention. With the crowd singing “Happy Birthday,” he lined up the putt, then lifted his arms in the traditional sign for noise. As the volume increased, he smoothly stroked in the putt.

NBC’s decibel meter bounced to its high mark of the day at 98.4.

“That took guts,” said Miller. “If he missed the putt, they would have turned on him.”

“I love that setting,” said Stroud. “It brings out the best in me. That’s the fifth time I have amped up the crowd on 16, then birdied the hole. It is so wild. The total crowd was the biggest I’ve ever seen. It was close to 250,000.”

Stroud, who had started the closing birdie run by nearly chipping in for eagle on the par-5 15th seemingly inspired himself with the theatrics at 16.

He followed by dropping an 8-footer for birdie on 17, then nearly holed a 124-yard bunker shot on 18. His birdie putt was 6 inches.

Round three, meanwhile, wasn’t nearly as positive for fellow PNG ex Andrew Landry.

Starting the day tied for 11th, Landry stumbled to a 74 and needed a birdie-birdie finish to do it. Without a birdie until 17, he tumbled into a tie for 45th.

Stroud’s round had gotten off to a ominous start. An errant drive on the second hole led to a penalty and a double bogey, He rebounded quickly by chipping in for eagle from 93 feet on the par-5 third.

From there, it was an ongoing struggle to make pars, until another wild drive led to a bogey at 11.
Once again the bounce back was immediate, as he knocked it close then sank a 6-footer for birdie on the par-3 12th. Two par saves after straying drives at 14 and 15 set the stage for the blazing finish.

Some of Stroud’s stats underscore the bromide about there being three kinds of lies — lies, damned lies and statistics. He’s T12 on the scoreboard but T46 in greens hit in regulation (36 of 54) and T55 in fairways hit (21 of 42).

Offsetting those numbers, he’s No. 1 in the field in strokes gained putting and No. 2 for putts on greens hit in regulation.

That would no doubt get Miller’s attention, too.