Justin Rose had three penalties and still kept a three-shot lead Saturday with a 3-under 69 at the Farmers Insurance Open.
Rose had six birdies and an eagle on another pristine day along the Pacific Ocean, a big reason why scores have been so low this week on a South course that will host another US Open in two years. When he two-putted from 12 feet for eagle on the par-5 13th, Rose led by six shots.
Then he pulled his shot from a fairway bunker into the hazard for a double bogey, his second of the round. And torn between laying up with an 8-iron or going for the green on the par-5 18th, Rose hit a 3-wood heavy from the first cut and went into the water, closing with a bogey.
That dropped his lead to three shots over Adam Scott, who birdied his last hole for a 65.
‘There was a long way to go,’ Rose said. ‘So I wasn’t really playing with the lead in mind at that point. If I was running 30th in the tournament, that was a shot I would probably hit. But yeah, it didn’t work out.’
He still tied the 54-hole tournament record at 18-under 198.
Jon Rahm had a 68 and was four shots behind, followed by 22-year-old Doug Ghim, a former No 1 amateur, playing this week on a sponsor’s exemption. Ghim shot a 67.
Tiger Woods had the biggest gallery and didn’t make much noise. Woods birdied three of his last five holes to salvage a 71, leaving him 13 shots behind and in search of moral victories in his 2019 debut.
He was at 5-under 211.
‘I think if I can get to double digits (under par), it would be just a nice way to end the week,’ Woods said. ‘I’ve got to play a little better than I have.’
Scott was the only player to give Rose a serious run, and it didn’t feel like much.
Starting the day seven shots behind, Scott opened with an 8-foot birdie and then holed out from 103 yards for eagle on the next hole. He added four birdies in a five-hole stretch at the turn and delivered the low round of the tournament on the South course.
And he still wondered if it was enough.
‘It’s almost all up to him tomorrow,’ Scott about Rose, his neighbor in the Bahamas.’So that’s no pressure on me. But this is not a course I can go out and just fire at pins. It’s too easy to make big errors. I’ll just have to chip away and see if he can do the same.’
Rose made plenty of errors, though he atoned for them with plenty of exquisite shots.
