In the first round of play with the entire field on the South Course at Torrey Pines, scores held steady Saturday with second round co-leader Ryuji Imada taking the lead into the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open.
His 2-under 70 leaves him at 13-under through three rounds — two strokes better than Michael Sim and Ben Crane and four strokes ahead of Phil Mickelson, who had a wild ride for a 70 on Saturday.
It started for Mickelson when he hit two drives into the trees on hole seven after the first was stuck in an overhanging limb.
With the ball stuck in the tree but visible, Mickelson had a chance to save a stroke if the ball could be identified as his. After this was announced, a fan immediately attempted to scale up the tree to retrieve it but came up short.
“I lost a ball in a tree, and because of that, I had to identify it,” Mickelson said. “And if I could have, I could have dropped it right there, one-stroke penalty. But instead I had to go back to the tee box.”
Mickelson admitted that in all of the times he has played Torrey Pines, he has never seen a ball get stuck in the trees.
After dropping a stroke at the 12th hole, Mickelson went for the green on the par-5 13th, pushing his 3-wood farther right than intended. But it ended up 10 feet from the pin, resulting in an eagle.
With that eagle, and the crowd cheering and high fiving him, Mickelson birdied 15. After driving the ball into the rough on 18, he went for the green but landed just short in the water hazard in front of the green.
But in true Lefty fashion, he chipped the ball within 10 feet and saved par to take momentum into his final round. He ended the day with a double bogey, a bogey, three birdies and an eagle.
With Ernie Els (8-under) and Mickelson making an early charge, Imada proved again to be a model of consistency. Although Imada had trouble finding the fairway off the tee, his continued stellar iron play has led to only one bogey in his first three rounds.
Imada’s most impressive shot of the day came at the seventh hole. After driving the ball off of the cart path and into an area of trees, he managed to hit a hard hook shot under a low branch and around another tree, ending up just off of the green.
Success at Torrey Pines is nothing new to Imada. He has made the cut in all six attempts and finished second in 2008.
“When I come here I’m making putts for some reason, I don’t know,” Imada said. “Last week we had perfect greens and I wasn’t making anything. This week, different story.”
Imada will need his Torrey Pines luck to continue on Sunday. Both Southern California natives and fan favorites, Mickelson and Rickie Fowler sit just two groups in front of him and four shots back.
The absence of Tiger in a tournament that he normally appears in was evident again on Saturday. While a healthy crowd followed Mickelson around the South course, many of the other players were only seen by small groups.
Els definitely noticed a difference on the course without Tiger.
“He’s great for the tour, great for the game,” Els said. “He comes out and he beats you, but he needs to be out here, and we miss him.”
Defending champion Nick Watney fired a 3-under 69 on Saturday, and is seven strokes back heading into the final round.
After jumping out to a first-round lead, former San Diego State Aztec Scott Piercy shot a 1-over 73 in the third round and is nine shots back heading into Sunday.
Craig Elsten -
Chris Ello -
Chainsaw -
