Justin Rose appears to have one hand on the Farmers Insurance Open trophy after managing to extend his lead over the third round at Torrey Pines.
It has been a masterclass from Justin Rose over the course of the first three days at Torrey Pines. The Englishman set the tone with a scintillating 62 on Thursday.
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And he has continued to move himself further and further away from the rest of the field. He goes into the last round of the Farmers Insurance Open six shots clear of Joel Dahmen.
Meanwhile, those tied for ninth are 11 shots adrift. The chasing pack are certainly going to require some help from Rose himself if they are going to stand any chance of setting up a dramatic finish on Sunday.
Justin Rose outlines what was odd about his third round at the Farmers Insurance Open
What may perhaps provide some with the smallest amount of encouragement is the fact that Rose posted his worst score of the week on Saturday – albeit, it was still a 68 from the 45-year-old.
He made one bogey over the first two rounds. But he managed to drop three shots over the course of his back nine yesterday.
Nevertheless, speaking to the Golf Channel, Rose suggested that the score did not reflect how happy he was with his display.
“Yeah I weirdly feel like I actually hit the ball better today. I almost felt like I played better today, but obviously there were putts that slid by the edges. The first couple of days I made pretty much everything I looked at, versus today a couple of reads were a little bit off,” he said.
“But the greens, they got a little more crusty on the back nine as well, so it wasn’t like you wanted to be too positive with them and have that three, four feet coming back either.
“Listen, I played great today and was delighted with the round, enjoyed it. And obviously, the back nine, it’s not exactly windy, but once the wind kicks up to that 10mph, it definitely gets your attention.”
Rose is putting on a ball striking clinic at Torrey Pines
Rose was one of just three players who gained more than three shots on the field with his approach play during the third round, as shown by Data Golf.
The 2013 US Open champion led the way, gaining 3.7 shots in that category.
But crucially, Rose was the only one of those three players to also gain shots off the tee.
It is remarkable how Rose continues to perform at such a high level at this stage of his career.
He made a real statement with a superb performance at Pebble Beach in the months leading into the 2025 Masters.
This week is seeing Rose prove that he is, once again, going to be one to watch once we get to Augusta National for the first major of the year.
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