The Players Championship 2012: Matt Kuchar Enters Final Stretch With Two Stroke Lead

Matt Kuchar has played nearly mistake-free golf this afternoon, as he leads The Players Championship by two strokes with three holes to play.

Martin Laird, who shot a 67 this afternoon, has been sitting in the clubhouse for roughly 30 minutes now at -11, waiting for Kuchar to make a mistake and come back to the Scottish golfer.

Since bogeying the first hole of today’s round, Kuchar has penciled in three birdies and 11 pars to stay atop the leaderboard.

But looming to close out Kuchar’s round is the infamous 17th island hole -- which he bogeyed yesterday after hitting it short of the green and into the water -- and an 18th hole that runs parallel with water all the way up to the green.

Zach Johnson is also two shots off the lead and can make up more ground with one hole to play. He parred 17 and must birdie his final hole on the round to close the gap with Kuchar, or risk waiting for the leader to fold on the final two holes and finish at -11 or worse.