A third-round 72 extinguished any hopes of a Sunday challenge the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am for Rory McIlroy, but Shane Lowry enjoyed a much better outing to sit just outside the top 10.
Sitting half a dozen shots off the lead at the halfway stage, McIlroy felt a decent Saturday would boost his chances of success, but a triple-bogey at the fourth, preceded by successive birdies, effectively killed off those aspirations.
FULL LEADERBOARD
A wayward tee shot on four was compounded by his failure to escape trouble from the dropped shot. A second bite at the cherry only found the greenside bunker and that too proved a challenge. In truth he was fortunate to escape with only a seven.
Successive birdies proved a decent response as he reached the turn at one-under par, but another dropped shot at the 10th halted any momentum.
Birdies at 14 and 15 were given back at the last where another errant drive was severely punished and ensured a double bogey for a roller-coaster round of 72 and among a group of players tied for 39th on nine-under par, 10 shots adrift of leader Akshay Bhatia.
It was a better day at the office for Lowry, who carded seven birdies on his way to a five-under-par 67.
The Offaly man began in fine style, picking up shots in the opening three holes before going out of bounds off the tee at the fifth on his way to a bogey.
Lowry three-putted his way to another bogey at the ninth, but three more birdies on the back nine has the 2019 Open winner tied for 12th on 13-under par.
Sitting on 19-under par, Bhatia takes a two-shot lead into the final round over Collin Morikawa, Sepp Straka and Jake Knapp, with American Jacob Bridgeman a further shot back.