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SPRINGFIELD, Missouri – Making his 64th start on the Korn Ferry Tour this week, 26-year-old David Kocher enters the final round as the outright leader for the first time of his career, holding a two-stroke lead over Robby Shelton in solo-second at the Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by LRS. Kocher entered the day as the outright 36-hole leader and also held a share of the lead after 18 holes.

Saturday’s tee times ran from 8:00 through 10:12 a.m. to allow players to finish their rounds before the Springfield temperatures eclipsed 100 degrees. Despite the heatwave that has been the talk of the week, Kocher remained consistent as he carded a 7-under 65, improving his score on the week to 22-under 194, a new career-low 54-hole total.

“I feel really good. I played really well again today in tougher conditions than the first two days,” said Kocher. “Just kept the ball in front of me and then made some good putts at the end.”

Entering the day with a two-shot lead over playing partners Taylor Montgomery and Kevin Roy, Kocher got off to another solid start, birdying the par-5 first and par-4 third. His only bogey of the day came at the No. 7, and for a brief time, Kocher lost the lead as Roy played the first eight holes at 5-under par.

“I saw Kevin start to get hot kind of early in the round as well,” said Kocher. “It definitely made me realize that pars aren't good out here. You need to make birdies to stay ahead.”

Kocher stuck to his game plan as he rolled in three consecutive birdies on No. 9-11 to reclaim the lead. After four straight pars on the 12th through 15th, Kocher recorded another trio of birdies on Nos. 16-18 to increase his lead over the field to two strokes heading into Sunday.

“The momentum in our group was definitely positive today,” said Kocher. “A lot of big putts kind of throughout the round to keep the momentum going. Then I started to make some putts at the end, which was big.”

A native of Morristown, New Jersey who now resides in Charlotte, North Carolina, Kocher has tallied three top-25 finishes in 19 starts this year, with his best finish of the year being a T21 at the Lake Charles Championship in March. His 36-hole lead entering Saturday’s third round marked the first outright lead of Kocher’s career after any of the first three rounds of play in a tournament.

Kocher’s only other time alone atop the leaderboard came when he won the 2020 El Bosque Mexico Championship by INNOVA, his sixth-ever start on the Tour. In that event, he remained inside the top 25 on the leaderboard throughout the week but entered the final round with a five-stroke deficit to leader Mito Pereira. Kocher carded a final-round 3-under 69 and ultimately entered a three-man playoff against Paul Barjon and Chad Ramey, earning the victory by birdying the first playoff hole.

Now in position to chase the second win of his Korn Ferry Tour career, Kocher took a moment Saturday afternoon to reflect on that weekend in Mexico.

“I had played against a lot of really good players that week,” said Kocher. “I know Mito Pereira was ahead of me, but I was in the second to the last group that day and made a lot of good birdies coming in down the stretch. I can take a lot of positives from that week and kind of memories I can draw on, and hopefully I can play well again tomorrow and get it done.”

Kocher admitted Saturday that he’s in an unfamiliar position being the outright leader. The last time that he sat inside the top-10 entering the final round was at the 2021 Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation where he finished the tournament T12.

“I honestly don't remember,” Kocher said, when trying to remember his last 54-hole lead. “I know I had a lead at the (2016) North Carolina Open. It's been a while for sure. I'm excited. This is kind of new territory for me playing with the lead, but I did it pretty well today and hopefully I can do it well again tomorrow.”

With just two more regular season events remaining after this week, a strong finish Sunday would propel Kocher up the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Points List, which he ranked No. 114 on entering this week. A win would firmly position him to finish the season inside the top 75, which would earn Korn Ferry Tour status for next season, and potentially in striking distance of finishing inside the top 25 to earn his first PGA TOUR card.

Final-round tee times will run from 7:30 through 9:42 a.m. local time off the first and 10th tees.

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