Goosen Still Tops at Northern Trust Open


Retief Goosen has been the picture of consistency this week. After opening with rounds of 5-under 66 and 70, the 46-year-old South African posted a 69 to head into Sunday's final round with a two-stroke lead and a chance to be the wire-to-wire winner at the Northern Trust Open. The $6.7 million PGA Tour event is taking place at the George Thomas-designed Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif.

After moving clear of the field with three birdies on the front nine, Goosen, a two-time winner of the U.S. Open, had an up-and-down home half, carding three bogeys and a birdie on the first four holes.

Following a par-3 on the 14th, he posted another bogey before birdies at the par-3 16th and par-5 17th. His first of those birdies came when he chipped in from the edge of a bunker at the front of the 16th green.

"It wasn't easy out there for me," Goosen told reporters. "I had to work hard to try and stay positive and focused. But I'm still in the lead, and that's a good place to be.

"I didn't hit the ball that great on the back nine, especially my driver, and put myself in a few bad places. Overall, very happy. Obviously a very good finish and a nice chip-in on 16 that kept the scorecard going."

Goosen, whose last victory came in the 2009 Transitions Championship, stands at 8-under 205, two strokes ahead of Canada's Graham DeLaet, who had a 70, and three ahead of South Korea's Sang-Moon Bae (66), Mexico's Carlos Ortiz (68), Spain's Sergio Garcia (68) and Kentuckian J.B. Holmes (69). Bae's 5-under score matched the low round of the day.

Four shots behind Goosen are Americans Dustin Johnson (67), Jim Furyk (68), James Hahn (69), Jordan Spieth (70), defending champion Bubba Watson (70) and Ryan Moore (72), Fiji's Vijay Singh (69), and Argentina's Angel Cabera (71).

Sharing 15th at 210 are Vaughn Taylor (68), Morgan Hoffman (66) and Paul Casey (71). In solo 18th at 211 is Keegan Bradley (70).

Pat Perez, Hideki Matsuyama, Michael Putnam, Ken Duke, Harris English, Brendon Todd and Justin Thomas are deadlocked at 212.

Thomas began the third round just a stroke behind Goosen. But the 21-year-old rookie from Louisville ballooned to a 4-over 75 to fall off the pace.

For all the scores, visit http://www.pgatour.com/leaderboard.html.