Golf

Guarded Game Lifts Mickelson as Woods Fades

Gregory Bull/Associated Press

Phil Mickelson in a greenside bunker on the South Course. He shared the third-round lead at Torrey Pines with Bill Haas.

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SAN DIEGO — After three rounds of acclimating to unseasonably perfect conditions at Torrey Pines Golf Course, Bill Haas, Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson, Hunter Mahan and Anthony Kim — the five golfers clustered within two strokes of the lead after Saturday’s third round of the Farmers Insurance Open — will start the real tournament Sunday.

On a cool, clear and dry day, Haas (71) and Mickelson (68) finished tied at 12-under-par 204, one stroke ahead of Watson and Mahan, both of whom eagled the 18th hole for rounds of 69. Kim birdied the final hole for a 71, and is two back, one stroke clear of the powerful rookie Jhonattan Vegas, who also birdied the finishing hole for a 69.

His playing partner, Tiger Woods, managed a 74 as he broke a stretch of 21 straight rounds of par or better in PGA Tour events at Torrey Pines. Woods, who has won the previous five times he teed it up on the tough old course on the La Jolla cliffs above the Pacific, including the 2008 United States Open, is eight strokes back and will not be winning a sixth straight here — barring some otherworldly event.

Woods has made it happen before, but for now, Haas and Mickelson are leading the way, tied atop the leader board on a hard and fast Torrey Pines where the odds on pulling off risky shots is lower than the relative humidity of 45 percent.

At least, that is the way Mickelson sees it. Mickelson, a San Diegan who has played hundreds of rounds at Torrey Pines and has three victories here — the last in 2001, said he was where he was because he finally swallowed a figurative dose of Castor oil and started to play the course more conservatively.

“The biggest thing for me is I’m not taking on anywhere near as much risk,” Mickelson said. “This course doesn’t reward you for taking on any challenge. And my more conservative approach into the greens, albeit boring, has led me to be on top of the leader board.”

Whether Mickelson can go against type for one more day — remember the 6-iron from the pine straw at the 13th hole on Masters Sunday last year? — will be revealed soon enough. But he does know that the array of players behind him, which includes Vegas, who won last week and is just three strokes back in sixth place, will not be laying up.

Haas, the 36-hole leader here who lost a playoff last week in the Bob Hope Classic, shot a steady 71 to stay in contention. At the Hope, he shot a 62 in the next-to-last round to jump into the fray. A two-time winner on tour, Haas is becoming more and more comfortable playing under pressure.

“I hung in there,” Haas said. “I saw my name up there most of the day and was able to hang in there and hold the lead for some of the back nine there. I hit a lot of quality shots on the back nine. Hopefully tomorrow, if things are going right, I can tell myself that I did it yesterday, I can do it today. Just tell myself I’ve been striking it nice and keep going.”

For Mickelson, who also is tied for first in total number of feet for putts holed (126.5), it has been a matter of reducing the risk and giving himself more chances — which means hitting more greens, which he has done. He has hit 42 of 54 for almost 78 percent.

Woods, with whom most spectators had hoped Mickelson would be tied with for the lead, has not given himself near as many chances. He has hit 36 greens for 66 percent and had a mediocre putting round Saturday, with 31.

“No doubt,” Woods said. “I did not play well at all today. It was a struggle all day, and I finally found something at No. 16, but 15 holes already had gone by, so that was pretty frustrating.”

When he first won here in 1999, Woods came from nine strokes off the pace. But that was after 36 holes, and he was at the end of — not in the midst of — a swing change, a process he has gone through twice before and which he said would take him an indeterminate amount of time to feel comfortable about.

“I know what I can do,” he said. “I know what I’m capable of hitting, the shots I’m capable of hitting, and I just need to keep improving and keep working.”

How long will that take?

“One time it took two years,” he said. “So I went through a stretch there from ’97, the middle of ’97 to May of ’99 when I only went through one tournament. So I’ve been through stretches like that before, and it takes time.”

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