Gary Woodland overcame a double-bogey 6 on the 17th hole to shoot 2-under-par 70 and take a one-stroke lead over Jordan Spieth and Marc Leishman of Australia after three rounds in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
Defending champion Tiger Woods, who has won eight times on the course, shot 79 and missed the secondary cut in a PGA Tour event for the first time in his career.
“It was definitely different seeing him making so many bogeys,” Jhonattan Vegas, Woods’ playing partner, said. “You don’t expect to see that out of him. He kept making mistakes.”
Woodland played flawlessly until missing the 15th green and making his only bogey, before hitting into a greenside bunker and eventually three-putting from 42 feet for his double bogey.
However, his fifth birdie at No. 16 helped limit the damage.
“If I drive the ball in play, I have a lot of chances to make birdie,” said Woodland, whose victory in the Reno-Tahoe Open last season was his second on the PGA Tour. “The par 5s, I can get to in two.
“If I drive the ball in play, I’m playing a little different golf course than most guys are playing.”
Spieth, the overnight leader after a 63, played the first six holes of round three in 4-over, but rallied with three birdies to salvage a 75, while Leishman had one birdie and one bogey in a round of 72.
Pat Perez, who grew up in San Diego and captured a Junior Worlds title at Torrey Pines, shot 72 and was tied for fourth, with Morgan Hoffman, who also had a 72.
Woods recorded double bogeys on the first and 18th holes, and also had five consecutive bogeys through No. 6. He avoided shooting 80 by carding one of his three birdies at No. 7 and holing a 10-foot par putt on his last hole while finishing on the front nine.
The 79 matched Woods’ third-highest score in his PGA Tour career and came within two strokes of his career high round of 81 in brutal conditions at the 2002 Open Championship at Muirfield.
