Bill Haas took the lead at the Northern Trust Open heading into Sunday after a strong round on Saturday that saw him miss birdie on the opening hole.
Fredrik Jacobson and Sang-Moon Bae had the lead heading into the weekend, but Haas had a great run after a pair of birdies on the front nine, making a 30-foot putt for birdie on the ninth hole and an eagle on the 10th. He used the momentum from those shots to set up a birdie on the tough 11th and finished with a three stroke lead after shooting a 7-under-64.
Haas knows the Riviera after winning last year and now with a 12-under-201, he has a good chance to make it back-to-back championship for the first time in the history of the tournament.
"It's very difficult in this game to just pull away from the rest of the field," Haas said. "You've only seen a few guys ever really do that, and those are guys like Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson. So I think I've just got to stay in the moment, don't let my emotions get the best of me."
John Merrick is second at 9 under par and Haas will be teeing off late in the day at 1:30 with Webb Simpson and Charl Schwartzel.
Last year Haas won after coming from behind two shots in the final round. He pushed things to a playoff with Mickelson and Keegan Bradley and pulled ahead to win. This year he has more of a cushion and Mickelson has a comeback to make.
Lefty had a rough day after playing solid on Friday, missing three putts for par throughout the day and falling nine shots behind on the day after putting up a 72. Ernie Els also fell behind after a strong previous round, going one stroke behind Mickelson.
Haas has been excellent and if he keeps up his strong play it unlikely anyone will catch him.
The coverage starts off with television coverage at 1 in the afternoon on the Golf Channel and then will move back to CBS later in the afternoon from 3 in the afternoon to 6 p.m. It will also be on the radio on SiriusXM's PGA Tour channel.
HERE is the LINK to the CBS coverage and HERE is the Radio XM link.
