Bubba Watson leads by one; Anirban Lahiri in T26

February 21, 2016: Anirban Lahiri held steady through the third round at the Riviera Country Club, signing on a 69 to end the day at T26. Bubba Watson fired a 67 to gain a one shot lead over overnight leader Jason Kokrak. At 12-under 201 Watson leads Kokrak, Chez Reavie and Dustin Johnson by just one, setting up a thrilling finish to the Northern Trust Open.

Rory McIlroy remained firmly in contention after he shot 67 in the third round. The former world No.1 is just two behind Watson at 10-under 203. Kevin Chappell, K J Choi, Adam Scott and Marc Leishman are also lying in T5 with McIlroy.

Lahiri started his round on a positive note, with a birdie at the par-4 3rd hole. But bogeys at 7 & 9 meant that the Indian made the turn at one over par.

The 49th ranked Indian played well from there, making four birdies on the back nine to give himself a shot at a top twenty finish on Sunday.

Anirban had good numbers backing up his performance on Saturday – a driving accuracy of 61.9% and 59.3% greens in regulation helped set up a healthy finish for the Indian.

At the top of the leaderboard though is a man who is familiar with winning at the Riviera. “Knowing that I’ve won here and knowing that I can play around here, obviously I have a little bit of an advantage on the guy that probably hasn’t won here,” said Watson.

With nine men within two shots of each other the Riviera is buzzing with excitement for a sensational finish on Sunday.

“It’s one of these golf courses, if you just stay around, hang in there and not make too many mistakes, stay patient, your time will come and it will present itself with a few opportunities,” informed McIlroy. “And thankfully on the back nine, I was able to take some of them.”