Noren leads by 1 at Torrey Pines
SAN DIEGO — A ninetime winner on the European Tour, Alex Noren of Sweden gave himself a chance to make his mark in America with a 3-under 69 on Saturday for a oneshot lead going into the final round of the Farmers Insurance.
Noren finished strong, unlike some of his top challengers. He drilled his second shot over the water on the par-5 18th at Torrey Pines to the back fringe, setting up a simple twoputt birdie.
Ryan Palmer had a chance to tie him for the lead until he came out of a wedge and missed the green to the right. He settled for par and a 73.
Jon Rahm, the defending champion who can go to No. 1 in the world with a victory this week, was poised to get within one shot, or possibly tie for the lead. From the middle of the fairway, Rahm's 4-iron came up short and into the water. After a penalty drop, his wedge bounced hard and through the green. His chip came out soft, and he missed a 6-foot putt to make double bogey.
That left him four shots out of the lead. Rahm was three shots behind going into the final round when he won last year.
Tiger Woods was superb with his short game for the second straight day, and it's a good thing. Woods was so wild off the tee that he hit only one fairway on the back nine and three fairways for the round. He putted for birdie on only nine holes. And he still managed to scratch out a 70.
Woods was eight shots behind, in the middle of the pack.
“It's not the driver, it's my swing,” said Woods, who has hit only six fairways since Thursday. “Some of my go-to shots aren't there. Some of the shots I like to hit under certain circumstances aren't there, either. The only thing I have is my short game and my heart, and that got me through today.”
Noren, who played his college golf at Oklahoma State, cracked the top 10 in the world at the end of 2016 after a four-victory season and now is at No. 19. This is his first year playing with a PGA Tour card.
“All I'm trying to do is play some good golf and my goal is to win a tournament,” Noren said. “I don't care too much if they know me or not. It's quite nice if they don't know me. But they're very nice to me.”
Noren's only blunder came at the tough par-4 12th, where he pulled his second shot into deep rough, and sent a wedge just over the green into a nasty lie for a downhill chip. He left that short and missed the putt. He bounced back with three birdies over the last six holes.
Woods again tees off on the back nine for today’s final round and is too many shots behind with too many players ahead of him to have a realistic chance. But it's been a good week for someone playing the PGA Tour for only the second time since August 2015 because of his three back surgeries. And he certainly gave his back a good test as many times as he was thrashing out of the rough.
“A good 12 months away from playing out of the rough, I don't know what this body is going to do,” he said. “But I think it did great today.”
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas — Brooke Henderson birdied the par-5 18th hole and had a onestroke lead over top-ranked Shanshan Feng on Saturday in the suspended second round of the windswept Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic. Henderson shot an even-par 73 to get to 5 under overall after two rounds and three days at the Ocean Club Golf Course in the event cut to 54 holes after wind wiped out play most of Friday.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Rory McIlroy was within sight of a first title in 17 months after the third round of the Dubai Desert Classic where he lay only one shot behind surprise leader Li Haotong on Saturday. McIlroy, who finished his second round in the morning, surprisingly struggled for the first time in seven rounds into his comeback from a three-month layoff and was 1-over par at the turn in the third round. The four-time major champion then recovered with five birdies on the back nine for a 4-under 68 and 19-under overall that put him one behind Li.