Monday 23 February 2015 00:49, UK
Retief Goosen staged an impressive late recovery to open up a two-shot lead after the third round of the Northern Trust Open at Riviera.
The South African looked likely to leave a high-quality field trailing in his wake after a faultless three-birdie 32 on the outward half, but he bogeyed four of the next six holes before hitting back with two straight birdies at 16 and 17.
He lipped out for another at the last, but the cast-iron par completed an entertaining 69 and left him two clear of Graham DeLaet on eight under par.
DeLaet was also erratic in his third-round 70, while Sang-Moon Bae (66) and Sergio Garcia (68) both kept mistakes to a minimum as they moved into contention on five under alongside JB Holmes and Carlos Ortiz.
Goosen started with a confident birdie after playing-partner DeLaet had joined him in a share of the lead thanks to an opening eagle, and the pair traded birdies at the sixth before the Canadian dropped shots at the next two holes.
The two-time US Open champion reclaimed his lead with a birdie at the eighth, and he added another at the 11th after duffing a chip and putting off the green to bogey the short par-four 10th.
The 46-year-old, chasing his first PGA Tour title since 2009, dropped shots at three of the next four holes before halting the slide with a superb chip-in for birdie at 16 which he followed with a well-crafted four at the long 17th.
Goosen shaved the edge of the hole with a 20-foot birdie putt at the last and DeLaet, who bogeyed 12 and 14 before responding with a two at the 16th, failed to convert a sublime approach to six feet moments later.
"It wasn't easy out there for me," Goosen said. "I had to work hard to try and stay positive and focused. But I'm still in the lead, and that's a good place to be.
"I didn't hit the ball that great on the back nine, especially my driver, and put myself in a few bad places. Overall, very happy. Obviously a very good finish and a nice chip-in on 16 that kept the scorecard going."
Bae on the charge
Bae made significant early strides up the leaderboard when he birdied four of the first seven holes, and the young South Korean added another at the 10th before reeling off eight straight pars to cap a bogey-free 66 - the best round of the third day.
Garcia had only one blemish on his card and made four birdies to join Bae and Ortiz in the clubhouse on five under, and JB Holmes birdied the final hole to return a 69 and make it a four-way tie for third place.
Garcia's round included a remarkable par at the 13th, where a wayward drive found a bunker behind the 10th green from where he threaded a daring three-iron between a tree and a television tower before saving his four with a 15-foot putt.
"I probably had a couple of yards between the TV tower and the trunk of the tree," Garcia said. "The difficult part about it was that I was in a little bit of a downslope in the bunker, with the ball a little bit above my feet.
"So I had to hit a low, low cut that went underneath the branches, and it just clipped one little branch. But I was thrilled. I would have been happy with a five there, so four was a bonus.
"To be able to kind of get away with it and manage to shoot the round I shot under the conditions, with the course playing really tough, I'm happy with that."
Dustin Johnson, playing only his third tournament since returning from a six-month absence, carded six birdies in a 67 which propelled him to four under par along with Jim Furyk and fellow veteran Vijay Singh, who dropped out of the group at five under with a bogey at 18.
Masters champions Angel Cabrera and Bubba Watson, rising star Jordan Spieth and James Hahn are also four behind Goosen as well as Ryan Moore, whose round unravelled after he lipped out for an albatross hole-in-one at the 10th and had to settle for a disappointing par.
Moore bogeyed three straight holes from the 12th, but he then matched Goosen's birdies at 16 and 17 to salvage a one-over 72, while England's Paul Casey is one stroke further adrift after a mixed bag of a 71 which included five birdies, three bogeys and a double-bogey six at the eighth.
Watch the final round from Riviera live on Sky Sports 4 - your home of golf. Coverage starts Sunday at 6pm.
