LA QUINTA, Calif. — Austin Cook played a six-hole stretch in 6 under and shot an 8-under 64 in breezy conditions Saturday to take the lead at the CareerBuilder Challenge.
Cook began the run at La Quinta Country Club with birdies on Nos. 4-5, eagled the sixth and added birdies on No. 7 and 9 to make the turn in 6-under 30.
After a bogey on the 10th, he birdied Nos. 11, 12 and 15 and saved par on the 18th with a 20-footer to take a 19-under 197 total into the final round on PGA West’s Stadium Course. The 26-year-old former Arkansas player is making his first start in the event. He won at Sea Island in November for his first PGA Tour title.
Fellow former Razorbacks star Andrew Landry and Martin Piller were a stroke back. Landry, the second-round leader, had a 70 on the Stadium Course. Piller, the husband of LPGA Tour player Gerina Piller, shot a 67 at La Quinta. They are both winless on the PGA Tour.
Jon Rahm had a 70 at the Stadium Course to reach 17 under. The top-ranked player in the field at No. 3, Rahm beat up the par 5s again, but had four bogeys — three on par 3s. He has played the 12 par 5s in 13 under with an eagle and 11 birdies.
Scott Piercy also was two strokes back after a 66 at the Stadium.
Adam Hadwin had a 67 at La Quinta a year after shooting a third-round 59 on the course. The Canadian was 16 under along with Grayson Murray and Brandon Harkins. Murray had a 67 on PGA West’s Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course, and Harkins shot 68 on the Stadium Course.
Phil Mickelson missed the cut in his first tournament of the year for the second time in his career, shooting a 74 on the Stadium Course to finish at 4 under — four strokes from a Sunday tee time.
The 47-year-old Hall of Famer was playing for the first time since late October. He also missed the cut in the Phoenix Open in his 2009 opener.
Charlie Reiter, the Palm Desert High School senior playing on the first sponsor exemption the event has given to an amateur, also missed the cut. The Southern California recruit had three early straight double bogeys in a 77 on the Stadium that left him 1 over for the week.
John Daly had an 80 at La Quinta. He opened with a triple bogey and had six bogeys — four in a row to start his second nine — and only one birdie. The 51-year-old Daly opened with a 69 on the Nicklaus layout and had a 71 on Friday at the Stadium.
Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Rory McIlroy fired a 7-under 65 Saturday in the third round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship to sit one shot behind leaders Ross Fisher and Thomas Pieters.
Northern Ireland’s McIlroy is on 16-under 200 overall with the former world No. 1 playing his first event since October.
England’s Fisher also shot a 65, while overnight leader Pieters added a 67 to reach 17-under 199 on a low-scoring day in the absence of any wind at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club’s National Course.
Top-ranked Dustin Johnson (68) is five shots behind the leaders.
Defending champion Tommy Fleetwood (67) was tied fourth on 201 with Matthew Fitzpatrick, whose 9-under 63 is the lowest round of the tournament so far.
McIlroy finally dropped a shot in the tournament on the par-3 15th when he could not get out of the greenside bunker in one attempt. He made up for this with a chipped-in birdie on the 17th and added another on the par-5 18th.
McIlroy has never finished outside the top five in seven of his last eight starts here.
"I’ve had a lot of close calls here, I think about six top threes or something like that," he said.
Fisher has been in good form since the second half of 2017, and has risen to 31st in the rankings. However, his last win came back at the 2014 Tshwane Open.
On Saturday, he started with three birdies in first four holes before dropping a shot on the fifth, and then played solid golf and made key par saves in his 65.
"I think a good momentum putt was probably the birdie on eighth," Fisher said. "We traded birdies, good shots, and just thoroughly enjoyed the guys’ company and look forward to doing it again tomorrow."
Pieters was disappointed at not making a birdie on the par-5 18th hole to stay one ahead of Fisher.
"A lot of really good shots and then finished poorly," the Belgian said. "That was a terrible last hole."
Johnson is tied for 12th with four other players after six birdies and two bogeys.