Justin Rose showing why he’s World No. 1 at Torrey Pines

Despite two double bogeys, World No. 1 Justin Rose ties the 54-hole scoring record at the Farmers Insurance Open to open up a three-shot lead

Not even three bad swings were going to stop Justin Rose on Saturday at Torrey Pines. Rose, the No. 1 ranked golfer in the world, recovered from two double bogeys to shoot three-under 69 in the third round of the Farmers Insurance Open to tie a tournament scoring record and take a three-shot lead.

Beginning the round leading by three, Rose got off to a good start with two birdies on his first three holes. At the par-four fourth hole, however, he gave those shots back after hitting his approach from a fairway bunker left of the green into a hazard, leading to a double bogey. He recovered at the par-five ninth, holing a 20-foot putt from just off the green for eagle.

After two more birdies on his back-nine to open up a six-shot lead, Rose again found trouble at the 14th, making his second double bogey of the round. He still had a chance to set a new 54-hole tournament record with a par at the par-five closing hole, but his approach came up short in the water guarding the green. The bogey dropped Rose to 18-under for the tournament, still good enough to tie the scoring record last set by Kyle Stanley in 2012.

Since first taking over the No. 1 ranking in September, Rose has been at the top of his game. In his last six PGA Tour events, he’s finished no worse than fourth five times, including two runner-up finishes and a tie for fourth at the Tour Championship that secured him the FedEx Cup and $10 million. He also won the Turkish Open on the European Tour in November.

He is, however, coming off a disappointing 34th-place finish last week at the Desert Classic, his first tournament since signing an endorsement deal with Japanese brand Honma in the offseason. Rose insists that result, though, was more because of mental mistakes he made than any adjustments to his new clubs.

“I’ve clicked into a much better rhythm and routine this week, so mentally I’ve been making less mistakes than I did last week,” he told ESPN after his round. “Still kind of snuck a couple in today, unfortunately, but that’s kind of golf and this golf course will do it to you. It’s a pretty tough challenge.”

He showed that mental edge he’s worked hard on recovering from his poor shots at the fourth and 14th, something he says he takes pride in.

“Double hurts, because you do so much good work…then you give it all back in a heartbeat,” he said. “But you have to pick yourself up. Every bone in your body wants to get frustrated and it’s easy to get your head down after that. But you can’t. You’ve got to put one foot in front of the other and build a round from there again. I did a good job of that today, which I’m proud of.”

The biggest improvement Rose has made to his game that’s allowed him to ascend to the top of the golfing world is on the greens. This season he leads the PGA Tour in one-putt percentage and putts per round while ranking 10th in strokes gained: putting; just two seasons ago he ranked 123rd in that category. On Saturday he made 111 feet worth of birdie putts.

Rose goes into Sunday’s final round with a three-shot lead over Adam Scott. Scott, making his first appearance in this event, shot seven-under 65 in the third round to jump into second place. First-round leader Jon Rahm is a shot behind Scott at 14-under.

The three will tee off in the final pairing at Torrey Pines’ South Course at 10:15 a.m. local time (1:15 p.m. EST) on Sunday.