Pat Perez shot six birdies and a bogey on the seventh hole to wrap up round three of the Bob Hope Classic with a five-under 67 on Friday, leading the pack with two shots at SilverRock Resort in La Quinta, California.

Although his third round performance was a little bit short from his 11-under 61 and 9-under 63 round 1 and round 2 scores respectively, Perez still managed to secure and aggregate of 25-under 191 in the 90-hole tournament.

“You know, it was a tough day, but there was no wind and the weather was perfect though. There’s a lot of blind shots out here, so I was kind of worried about some of these holes. I never played this course before. But I got around it pretty good,” Perez said.

Steve Stricker fired 11 birdies to end the day with 11-under 61 but his aggregate fall two shots short from establishing a tie with the leader. Vaughn Taylor’s 64 left him another shot back at 194. Jason Dufner, who made it into the tournament when Anthony Kim withdrew Tuesday because of a sore shoulder, stayed in contention with a 67 that left him in a group of four at 195.