Andrew Novak dropped an absolute monster of a birdie putt on the fifth gap to create one of many highlights of the match and arrange an exciting end to the ultimate spherical of the Farmers Insurance coverage Open.
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The American, who’s chasing his first PGA Tour victory after years of grinding away on the secondary Korn Ferry Tour, learn the large slope to perfection as his putt from 54 ft and 4 inches began nicely vast of the opening earlier than coming again completely to drop in for a 3rd straight birdie.
Regardless of being such an extended putt, it by no means regarded like lacking as Novak had the road, and the velocity, spot on and such moments can typically be a pivotal step on the street to victory.
LEADERBOARD: Dwell scores
Novak began the day one shot behind countryman Harris English, and after 13 holes the hole between them stays the identical.
Novak opened up a two shot lead when he dropped his huge birdie putt, however back-to-back bogeys at seven and eight handed the benefit again to English.
The pair each shot third rounds of 66 on a day the place wild wind gusts of virtually 50km/h wreaked havoc, however each gamers are one-over for the day with English at -8 and Novak at -7.
Fellow American Sam Stevens is alongside Novak in a share of second place for a lot of his again 9, however he might have grabbed a share of the lead on the final.
Stevens left his shot into the par 5 18th inexperienced quick and his ball rolled down the hill and into the pond.
An excellent chip from the drop zone helped save par and he entered the clubhouse with the low spherical of the day at four-under.
The windy situations have returned once more on Saturday at Torrey Pines – the match began a day earlier to keep away from a Sunday conflict with the NFL convention championship video games.
The scoring common for a full spherical on the long-lasting south course in San Diego, which can even host The Genesis Invitational subsequent month as an alternative of Riviera as a result of fires in Los Angeles, has been 75.18, barely greater than three-over par.
Gamers have discovered every kind of option to attempt take care of the wind, together with fan favorite Joel Dahmen, who’s 5 over for the day after 14 holes to fall out of rivalry, resorting to chopping the hood off his jumper to cease it flapping round.
Dahmen additionally created one of many greatest speaking factors of the day when he revealed that he and his caddie Geno Bonnalie got here to San Diego in October to coach with Navy Seals like Tiger Woods famously did.
The world No. 244, who has been as excessive as 58 on the planet, grew to become fashionable off the again of the primary season of Netflix’s Full Swing however struggled afterwards together with his frustrations usually getting the higher of him heading in the right direction, so he hoped the coaching would make him mentally harder.
“I had no thought what I used to be getting myself into. I assumed it might be powerful, but it surely was even harder than I assumed. I don’t essentially love water, No. 1, and I don’t like being chilly,” he stated.
“I don’t assume I’d’ve gotten by the autumn if I didn’t have that coaching. I can dig deeper than I assumed I might earlier than. There’s extra in there. I’m simply making an attempt to faucet into that extra typically.”