SAN DIEGO — While golfers with grander resumes struggled to keep pace, a pair of veteran non-winners moved to the top of the leaderboard Saturday in the third round of the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines.
Despite a bogey on the par-5 18th hole when he put his third shot in the only water hazard on the course, Patrick Rodgers grabbed a one-shot lead over Denny McCarthy with a 4-under 68. Rodgers, who finished three rounds at 8-under 208, and McCarthy have combined for nearly 500 PGA Tour appearances without finishing better than second.
Rodgers, 32, was an amateur star at Stanford, but after 286 PGA Tour starts, he knows his reputation. He has been a runner-up four times, including twice in playoffs. This is the fifth time he has entered the final round of a stroke-play event with the lead.
“It’s the thing that whenever my name is mentioned, that’s the first thing that everybody says professionally, so it’s something that I have to deal with,” he said. “I think I’ve struggled with it for a long time, but I feel like I’m viewing my career from a different vantage point now and I’m excited about the opportunity to cross that finish line tomorrow.”
Rodgers explained that instead of “playing with a lot of expectation, I need to play to achieve. … So instead of playing with a monkey on your back that gets bigger and bigger over time when it doesn’t happen, I’m trying to play from a perspective that feels fresh and new and exciting and full of opportunity because that’s what this game is, and I have a great one tomorrow.”
Rodgers’ record includes three top-10 showings at the Farmers Insurance Open, the annual tour stop at Torrey Pines. The South Course here is hosting the Genesis this week due to wildfires last month near its usual home at Riviera Country Club, about 125 miles north in Pacific Palisades.
The 31-year-old McCarthy, who has two runner-up finishes in 193 starts, made four birdies in a five-hole stretch to get to 9-under for the tournament after 10 holes Saturday, but dropped back to 7 under after a 71.
McCarthy is not one of the longer hitters, which can be a disadvantage at Torrey South, but he said he has worked to improve that part of his game.
“I’ve gotten longer and I’m long enough to definitely play well here,” he said. “I’ve picked up some speed. I was letting it swing pretty freely today and I like how confident and committed I was on some of those tee shots.”
Meanwhile, the two players who began the day at the top of the leaderboard tied for the worst rounds of the day at 4-over 76. Davis Thompson, who had the lead, dropped into a tie for fourth at 4 under, one shot ahead of Scottie Scheffler. The world’s top-ranked player made bogeys on both par-5 holes on the front nine and a double bogey on the par-4 14th.
World No. 3 Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland also struggled, finishing with a 2-over 74 that left him five shots behind Rodgers.
McIlroy was seven shots off the lead until the last hole, when Rodgers came up short with a gap wedge from 91 yards and the ball rolled down a bank into a pond that fronts the green. He saved bogey while McIlroy, playing in the next group, made a birdie.
“I felt like I executed a decent shot,” said Rodgers, who was bogey-free to that point, “but what happened was it came out just a little slower with the moisture (on the course) so my gap wedge … shot just came out really slow. Felt like I executed OK. Obviously it looked silly when it ends up in the water, but I’m proud of the way I got it up and in.”
Ludvig Aberg of Sweden is in third place at 6 under after a 70 that included the first hole-in-one of the tournament. Aberg struck a pitching a wedge on the 140-yard third hole, with the ball landing just a few feet past the pin and spinning back into the hole.
“It was a really cool moment,” Aberg said. “I’ve never made a hole-in-one in tournament play before.”
According to the PGA Tour, the last ace on that hole came 1,479 days ago when Richy Werenski holed out in the first round of the 2021 Farmers Insurance Open. It was the sixth ace of the year on the tour — all by international players: Sami Valimaki of Finland, Kris Ventura of Norway, McIlroy, Shane Lowry of Ireland, Emiliano Grillo of Argentina and Aberg.
The best round of the day was shot by Tony Finau, who began play nearly three hours before the leaders tied for 24th and ended it tied for fourth. As part of a front-nine 32, Finau chipped in for birdie three times, from 21 feet on 3, from 15 feet on 4 and from 28 feet on 8. He added birdies on 13 and 16 (with a 49-foot putt) before his lone bogey at 17.
“I think that’s the most chip-ins I’ve had in one round really in my life, for sure in my career,” Finau said. “Maybe as a kid I may have chipped in a few times. But that’s always a bonus.”
Finau has finished in the top 10 in half of his previous 12 tournaments at Torrey Pines, including a runner-up showing at the 2021 Farmers, but he has never won.
“I think it’s just a tough test and I usually like tough tests more than birdie shootouts,” Finau said. “So I’m able to just play my way into contention often out here because of that.”
–Jay Posner, Field Level Media
