Anirban Lahiri tied 19th, Jason Dufner holds on to lead

Anirban Lahiri fought back from a rough start on the front nine to bring home a card of one-under 71 in the third round, but still slipped to the tied 19th place in the CareerBuilder Challenge golf tournament at La Quinta, California, on Saturday.

The 28-year-old Indian, who was tied third after two rounds, is playing his first full season on the PGA Tour. He rallied from a bogey on the fourth and a double bogey on the seventh with four birdies between the eighth and the 14th holes.

Lahiri, the two-time winner on the European Tour in the Malaysian Open and the Hero Indian Open in 2015, also missed a bunch of makeable birdie putts and another couple for a par and bogey.

Other than his second shot hits into water on the fourth and the seventh, Lahiri hit well to give himself a lot of opportunities, but missed quite a few.

Lahiri, who shot a bogey free 64 on first day and a 68 on second day, was 11-under through 54 holes in a tournament, which has turned out to be a birdie-fest of sorts.

Jason Dufner, winless since the 2013 PGA Championships, added an eight-under 64 after 64-65 on the first two days. Dufner had a great finish with seven birdies on his final nine holes to take a two-shot advantage into the final round with one round left at the PGA West’s TPC Stadium Course.

Playing at the toughest of the three courses, the Stadium Course on Saturday, Lahiri’s highpoints of the round were a brace of birdies from around 14 feet each on the eighth and ninth and another two from inside five feet after good approach shots on the 12th and 14th.

But his story on Day Three was one of missed putts. Lahiri missed birdie putts inside 10 feet on at least four occasions. Besides that he missed a 12-footer for par after going into the water on fifth, missed a 14-footer for birdie on sixth and missed a 15-footer for bogey when he again went into water on par-4 seventh.

Said Lahiri, “I left a lot of putts out there and that was disappointing. I still hope to make up some ground in the final round. So let’s see.”