SAN DIEGO — Joel Dahmen couldn’t believe what he just saw. Playing partner Justin Rose, enjoying an extended heater at Torrey Pines, had a lie on Saturday in the first cut of rough off the fairway on the South Course’s challenging seventh hole. The pin location was as tough as it comes, tucked into the upper right corner. Rose would later admit that he wasn’t firing at the flagstick, but his 9-iron faded toward it, and the ball ended up five feet from the hole. The Englishman converted a third straight birdie.
Dahmen already had witnessed a bunch of striped drives and dart-like iron shots over the morning, but he was dumbfounded by the play at 7.
“So he’s got to hit it high over the tree out of the first cut,” Dahmen described, “so it could fly, come out dead—and he hits this thing to the moon, it comes down to four feet. You don’t hit that shot in a practice round let alone when you have a six- or seven-shot lead on Saturday and you’re hanging out.
“At that point, that was just kind of like, ‘OK, you win.’ ”
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Clearly, Rose has ground even his closest challengers into submission going into Sunday’s final round. The World No. 10 has recorded 24 red numbers, with one eagle, and in shooting a four-under-par 68 on Saturday, Rose forged a six-shot lead with a 54-hole tournament record total of 21-under 195.
Rose, seeking his second win at Torrey Pines and 13th tour victory overall, has an opportunity to win the tournament wire-to-wire, and in an almost unbelievable circumstance, he can pull off something Tiger Woods never did in his seven wins at Torrey. Rose would be the first to hold a solo lead in every round and win San Diego’s tour event since Tommy Bolt in 1955. Johnny Miller went wire-to-wire in 1982, but he was tied after the first round.
The well-mannered Rose and volcanic Bolt in the same company? That’s like pairing the Dalai Lama and Happy Gilmore.
Woods is tied with three others in the tournament for the largest margin of victory of eight strokes. At three different times on Saturday, Rose created that gap, only to surrender two shots in that margin late on a two-shot swing with Dahmen at the par-3 16th.
Dahmen shot a 68 in the third round that he figured was the best he could do as a short hitter on the meaty South, and he gained no ground on Rose. A one-time tour winner who started this season with only conditional status, Dahmen is alone in second at 15 under, with Japan’s Ryo Hisatsune (68) and South Korea’s Si Woo Kim (69) eight shots behind.
“My only hope is if he doesn’t set his alarm or he somehow starts hitting in the rough on the back nine maybe,” Dahmen said. “I don’t know. The way he’s playing and what he’s doing, I would be pleased with second place.”
Earlier this week—and he wasn’t citing Rose specifically at the time—Dahmen pointed out that the best players on the tour were getting younger and that there were only a handful of competitors left in their 40s. Rose is 45, but he’s maintained his strength through diligent fitness training and his competitive mind seems as sharp as ever.
“To still have the drive with the career that he’s had is very impressive,” Dahmen said. “He puts a lot of work into his body. His ability to still grind and practice and spend the time on it when he’s got everything you could want is really impressive, honestly. It’s almost inspiring for me, I’m seven years younger than him, I’m getting outdriven by 30 yards. I’ve got to get in a little better shape to hang out with Justin.”
The current state of Rose’s game and mental strength figures to come into play on Sunday as he tries to maintain a competitive edge with such a comfortable lead.
“There’s never going to be any complacency,” Rose said. “I think there’s always enough respect for the game of golf in the back of your mind that you’ve got to do everything right tomorrow. You’re going to come out, have to be focused, have to play well. Obviously somebody can always really shoot a great round and therefore you’ve got to get around this golf course in a pretty decent score.
“Yeah, that’s the mentality. I kind of have to just control what I can control from the first hole tomorrow. But I’ve enjoyed playing the golf course this week. I want to continue to enjoy the week as a whole, and, yeah, it’s another great round in good weather on an awesome golf course.”
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
