Woodland struggles to third-round 76

After spending three days near the top of the leaderboard, former Kansas University golfer Gary Woodland fell back a bit on Sunday.

Playing in one of the wettest and wildest U.S. Opens in recent memory, Woodland finished his third round Sunday, which he started Saturday but did not complete, and played seven holes of his final round before play was suspended for the fourth straight day because of weather or darkness.

Woodland’s third-round 76 pushed him from 1-under for the tourney to 5-over. He opened his final round with three straight bogeys to fall to 8-over for the championship. After the rough stretch, however, the KU product parred three of four holes and birdied the other to pull into a tie for 40th at 7-over heading into what officials hope will be the final day today.

Despite the rough outing, Woodland remains in position to turn in his best finish of his rookie season on the PGA Tour. Currently, Woodland’s highest finish of the season was a 28th-place showing at the Mayakoba Classic in February in Cancun.

In addition to playing for positioning, there’s also a substantial amount of money involved. Last year the difference between finishing 18th and 36th was more than $50,000.

Woodland will pick up his final round on hole No. 17. He’ll still have 11 holes to finish.