English ends over par but shares lead

Chad Campbell aces No. 3 hole

Associated Press

SAN DIEGO

Two poor chips wound up costing Harris English three shots. He battled just to get birdie chances on the South Course at Torrey Pines and only converted two of them. He wound up with a 1-over 73 and a share of the lead with J.B. Holmes on Saturday in the Farmers Insurance Open.

And he was pleased with his performance.

The previous three tournaments he played this year, a 73 would have sent English spiraling down the leaderboard. Not this week.

“It’s hard to play Torrey Pines and not be a difficult day,” English said. “I know 1-over par is never good on the PGA Tour, but today it keeps me in the tournament. I could have easily pressed a little bit and turned that 1 over into a 3 or 4 over. ... I’m coming off the day very pleased and looking forward to tomorrow.”

Holmes birdied all but one of the par 5s and escaped with bogey on his one big miss in the third round. He had a 68 to match the low score of the round and join English on top of a very crowded leaderboard going into the final round.

A dozen players were separated by two shots, and all but three of those players have won on the PGA Tour. Two of them, Jimmy Walker and Bill Haas, have won in the last month. Considering this is the South Course at Torrey Pines, Today might be more about survival than shootout.

“This is a U.S. Open golf course,” English said. “And you’ve got to treat it like that.”

English led by as many as three shots early in the third round until his streak of 39 holes at par or better ended with a double bogey on No. 4 when his chip ran to the upper tier of the green. He lost the lead again late in his round with a poor chip on the 16th.

English and Holmes were at 9-under 207 with a host of contenders behind them.

The South Course hosted the 2008 U.S. Open — and gets another U.S. Open in six years — and while the setup isn’t the same, it’s not far off. The rough is so thick that when Jhonattan Vegas, two shots behind after a 73, missed the fairway by a few feet, he had to stoop over just to see his golf ball.

No one shot better than 68, and only six players broke 70.

“Guys are getting bunched,” Walker said. “You’ve got par 5s that are tough, and a lot of them are unreachable.”

No shot was more memorable for Chad Campbell than his hole-in-one on the picturesque third hole with a pitching wedge. He played well the other 17 holes for a 70 and is in the hunt for his first victory in more than seven years.