Saudi International R3

February 04-07
Royal Greens G&CC, King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia
$3,500,000
Round 1, Round 2, Round 4

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World Number One Dustin Johnson finished with back-to-back birdies to take a two shot lead into the final round of the Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers as he attempts to win the title for a second time in three years.

Johnson pulled clear of the star studded field with four birdies in his opening ten holes, but his momentum was briefly halted by a double bogey six on the 13th . He restored his two stroke advantage by birdieing the two closing holes for a third round of 66.

“It was a good finish. I felt like I played really well all day, other than 13, but I didn’t think I hit that bad a shot. I pushed it a hair right of the flag but just came up well short of where I thought it would and ended up making 6 there.

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“But other that than that, I drove it well and hit a lot of really good iron shots in there to give myself a lot of good chances at birdie. Didn’t hole a whole lot of putts. But finishing nicely definitely helped the day out.”

At 13 under par total the American is in pole position to add to his impressive record at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club, having claimed the inaugural title in 2019 and then finished runner up to Graeme McDowell 12 months ago.

“I like the golf course,” said Johnson. “I think it sets up good for me. I’ve liked it since the first time I came here a couple years ago. I feel like I’m swinging it well and giving myself all the chances tomorrow. Just need to hole a few putts.”

His nearest challenger is France’s Ryder Cup hopeful Victor Perez who carded a round of 66 to move to 11 under par, while English pair Tyrrell Hatton (66) and Andy Sullivan (68), Denmark’s Søren Kjeldsen (65) and American Tony Finau (67) are all three shots back on ten under.

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“The course was a bit more challenging on the back,” said Perez. “There were some really good pin positions, I think. 11 was tough. 12 was tough. 13 was tough. 14 was tough. It was just hard to get close. I think if you give yourself looks, but 20, 25 feet it’s harder to make putts compared to the front where there were more back stops and the par 5 was playing downwind and hit a good shot into 3 but it feeding towards the hole. A bit more accessible and I was able to take advantage. Happy to have made one on 17.

“(Playing with Dustin Johnson) obviously that’s as good as it gets. I’ll be very excited for the challenge. I think this is all you strive for. I think the Tour is doing great at having some of those great players being here and playing and giving us the chance, mostly staying in Europe the last two years, playing against those guys, it will be a great competition.”

Spain’s Sergio Garcia posted the lowest round of the day, a six under par 64, and is one of seven players in a share of seventh position on nine under par, along with Norway’s Viktor Hovland (67) and former World Number One Martin Kaymer (66).

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Pos.	Player	To Par	R1	R2	R3	Total
1	Dustin Johnson	-13	67	64	66	197
2	Victor Perez	-11	67	66	66	199
T3	Tony Finau	-10	68	65	67	200
T3	Tyrrell Hatton	-10	67	67	66	200
T3	Søren Kjeldsen	-10	69	66	65	200
T3	Andy Sullivan	-10	66	66	68	200
T7	George Coetzee	-9	66	70	65	201
T7	Ryan Fox	-9	65	65	71	201
T7	Sergio Garcia	-9	70	67	64	201
T7	Calum Hill	-9	65	68	68	201
T7	David Horsey	-9	61	71	69	201
T7	Viktor Hovland	-9	68	66	67	201
T7	Martin Kaymer	-9	67	68	66	201
T14	Laurie Canter	-8	66	68	68	202
T14	Justin Rose	-8	68	66	68	202
T14	Matthew Southgate	-8	70	67	65	202
T14	Stephen Gallacher	-8	62	68	72	202
T18	Bryson DeChambeau	-7	65	70	68	203
T18	Kurt Kitayama	-7	67	68	68	203
T18	Kevin Na	-7	69	63	71	203
T18	Ian Poulter	-7	67	69	67	203
T18	Bernd Wiesberger	-7	64	68	71	203
T23	Paul Casey	-6	69	68	67	204
T23	Shane Lowry	-6	70	67	67	204
T23	Robert MacIntyre	-6	71	68	65	204
T23	Chris Paisley	-6	68	67	69	204
T23	Thomas Pieters	-6	65	71	68	204
T23	Lee Westwood	-6	67	70	67	204
T23	Ashun Wu	-6	68	68	68	204
T23	Fabrizio Zanotti	-6	66	71	67	204
T31	Sean Crocker	-5	68	72	65	205
T31	Masahiro Kawamura	-5	66	71	68	205
T31	Maximilian Kieffer	-5	71	67	67	205
T31	Wilco Nienaber	-5	71	67	67	205
T31	Cormac Sharvin	-5	70	69	66	205
T36	Christiaan Bezuidenhout	-4	68	69	69	206
T36	Tommy Fleetwood	-4	68	65	73	206
T36	Justin Harding	-4	68	70	68	206
T36	Jason Kokrak	-4	70	67	69	206
T36	Antoine Rozner	-4	67	67	72	206
T36	Julian Suri	-4	69	67	70	206
T36	Justin Walters	-4	68	68	70	206
T36	Jeff Winther	-4	67	73	66	206
T44	Rafa Cabrera Bello	-3	69	69	69	207
T44	Ross Fisher	-3	69	70	68	207
T44	Rasmus Højgaard	-3	70	69	68	207
T44	Jazz Janewattananond	-3	69	70	68	207
T44	Takumi Kanaya	-3	67	71	69	207
T44	Marcus Kinhult	-3	65	68	74	207
T44	Mikko Korhonen	-3	66	70	71	207
T44	Phil Mickelson	-3	68	67	72	207
T44	James Morrison	-3	67	73	67	207
T44	Matthieu Pavon	-3	68	72	67	207
T44	Patrick Reed	-3	69	70	68	207
T44	Matthias Schwab	-3	68	72	67	207
T44	Richard Sterne	-3	69	70	68	207
T57	Kiradech Aphibarnrat	-2	73	67	68	208
T57	Steven Brown	-2	68	67	73	208
T57	Dean Burmester	-2	69	71	68	208
T57	Thomas Detry	-2	67	70	71	208
T57	Jamie Donaldson	-2	72	67	69	208
T57	Joost Luiten	-2	67	66	75	208
T57	Jhonattan Vegas	-2	66	74	68	208
T57	Joachim B. Hansen	-2	70	70	68	208
T65	Pablo Larrazabal	-1	69	71	69	209
T65	David Law	-1	70	70	69	209
T65	Michael Lorenzo-Vera	-1	69	70	70	209
T65	Guido Migliozzi	-1	68	67	74	209
T65	Wade Ormsby	-1	71	69	69	209
T65	Oliver Wilson	-1	68	72	69	209
T71	Abraham Ancer	E	71	69	70	210
T71	Danny Willett	E	67	72	71	210
T73	Romain Langasque	3	69	67	77	213
T73	Graeme McDowell	3	70	70	73	213
T73	Ross McGowan	3	68	72	73	213
T73	Julien Guerrier	3	70	70	73	213
CUT	Ignacio Elvira Mijares	1	71	70		141
CUT	Scott Hend	1	71	70		141
CUT	Lucas Herbert	1	70	71		141
CUT	David Howell	1	71	70		141
CUT	Francesco Laporta	1	70	71		141
CUT	Min Woo Lee	1	69	72		141
CUT	Haotong Li	1	65	76		141
CUT	David Lipsky	1	70	71		141
CUT	Edoardo Molinari	1	73	68		141
CUT	Haydn Porteous	1	70	71		141
CUT	Kalle Samooja	1	69	72		141
CUT	Shubhankar Sharma	1	69	72		141
CUT	Joel Stalter	1	69	72		141
CUT	Matt Wallace	1	73	68		141
CUT	Chris Wood	1	73	68		141
CUT	Harry Hall	2	70	72		142
CUT	Garrick Higgo	2	70	72		142
CUT	Brandon Stone	2	70	72		142
CUT	Adri Arnaus	3	69	74		143
CUT	Alexander Björk	3	72	71		143
CUT	Kristoffer Broberg	3	70	73		143
CUT	Jorge Campillo	3	69	74		143
CUT	John Catlin	3	69	74		143
CUT	Gavin Kyle Green	3	71	72		143
CUT	Miguel Angel Jiménez	3	72	71		143
CUT	Andrew Johnston	3	70	73		143
CUT	Zander Lombard	3	72	71		143
CUT	Adrian Otaegui	3	68	75		143
CUT	Aaron Rai	3	69	74		143
CUT	Jason Scrivener	3	75	68		143
CUT	Grant Forrest	4	69	75		144
CUT	Benjamin Hebert	4	71	73		144
CUT	Scott Jamieson	4	74	70		144
CUT	Alexander Levy	4	71	73		144
CUT	Richie Ramsay	4	73	71		144
CUT	Paul Waring	4	71	73		144
CUT	Nino Bertasio	5	75	70		145
CUT	Thomas Bjørn	5	74	71		145
CUT	David Drysdale	5	70	75		145
CUT	Ernie Els	5	74	71		145
CUT	Jordan Smith	5	71	74		145
CUT	Shergo Al Kurdi (a)	6	69	77		146
CUT	Ashley Chesters	6	70	76		146
CUT	Lorenzo Gagli	6	71	75		146
CUT	Eduard Rousaud (a)	6	72	74		146
CUT	Henrik Stenson	6	72	74		146
CUT	Othman Almulla	7	71	76		147
CUT	Paul Dunne	7	73	74		147
CUT	Renato Paratore	7	72	75		147
CUT	Tapio Pulkkanen	7	73	74		147
CUT	Alvaro Quiros	7	71	76		147
CUT	Sami Valimaki	7	73	74		147
CUT	Oliver Fisher	8	72	76		148
CUT	Jayden Schaper	8	74	74		148
CUT	Sebastian Soderberg	8	73	75		148
CUT	Richard McEvoy	11	73	78		151
CUT	Andrea Pavan	13	74	79		153
CUT	Marc Warren	13	74	79		153
CUT	Saud Al Sharif	18	80	78		158
CUT	Faisal Salhab (a)	18	77	81		158
WD	Victor Dubuisson	E	71	69		140
DISQ	Raphael Jacquelin	6	76	61		137