Mickelson goes four clear with a 62

Defending champion Phil Mickelson continued his roller-coaster ride of a performance in the US PGA Tour's Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club, Pacific Palisades in California by firing a third round nine-under-par 62 on Saturday to move four strokes clear of the field.
Andres Romero signed for a 65 to move into second at 12 under, with Fred Couples (65), Rory Sabbatini (67), KJ Choi (67) and Scott McCarron (70) tied for third a further stroke adrift.
First round pacesetter Mickelson had struggled on Friday and fell three shots behind second round leader McCarron, but the left-hander's consistency quickly returned for the third round to send the American to the top of the leaderboard.
For the second straight day, Mickelson opened with an eagle on the par-five first hole before a birdie at the fourth.
And his round came alive on the back nine with six birdies to put Mickelson in a position to post his first win of the year after so far failing to finish inside the top 40 at the two events he made the cut.
THIRD-ROUND TOTALS
Par 213 (3 x 71)
197 Phil Mickelson 63 72 62
201 Andres Romero (Arg) 66 70 65
202 Scott McCarron 64 68 70, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 68 67 67, KJ Choi (Kor) 66 69 67, Fred Couples 67 70 65
203 Steve Stricker 68 66 69, Dustin Johnson 66 70 67, Mark Calcavecchia 70 69 64
204 J.B. Holmes 73 67 64, Luke Donald (Eng) 66 69 69
205 Richard S Johnson (Swe) 70 68 67, Robert Allenby (Aus) 70 67 68, Dean Wilson 66 72 67, Briny Baird 67 70 68
206 Brendon De Jonge 69 70 67, Brian Davis (Eng) 69 69 68, Hunter Mahan 69 69 68, Chris DiMarco 68 72 66, Rich Beem 68 69 69, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 68 67 71, Ben Curtis 68 69 69, Tim Clark (Rsa) 68 72 66, Tommy Armour III 67 67 72
207 Kenny Perry 70 68 69, Jeff Klauk 67 72 68, Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 70 71 66, Bill Lunde 69 67 71, Woody Austin 68 70 69, Kevin Sutherland 72 67 68, Jason Bohn 73 66 68
208 Kevin Na 67 69 72, Bubba Watson 69 71 68, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 72 68 68, Marc Turnesa 69 68 71, Rocco Mediate 70 68 70
209 Jerry Kelly 72 68 69, Chad Campbell 72 68 69, John Merrick 66 71 72, Joe Ogilvie 70 70 69, Jimmy Walker 69 70 70
210 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 69 70 71, Charley Hoffman 68 72 70, Pat Perez 69 66 75, Kirk Triplett 67 70 73, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 68 71 71, Jeff Quinney 69 71 70, David Duval 70 69 71, Bob Estes 72 65 73, Brandt Jobe 68 72 70
211 Mike Weir (Can) 70 71 70, Soren Hansen (Den) 70 69 72, Ernie Els (Rsa) 71 67 73, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 67 73 71, John Mallinger 70 68 73, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 68 71 72, D.J. Trahan 67 72 72
212 Michael Letzig 70 71 71, Brad Adamonis 70 70 72, Nick Watney 71 68 73, Bart Bryant 74 67 71, Jim Furyk 66 71 75, Cameron Beckman 70 71 71, Scott Verplank 71 70 71, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 71 68 73, Stephen Ames (Can) 71 70 71
213 Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 71 70 72, Bo Van Pelt 68 71 74, Matt Kuchar 70 68 75
214 Ben Crane 72 68 74, Daniel Chopra (Swe) 73 67 74, Jason Gore 69 70 75, Charles Howell III 72 67 75
215 Charlie Wi (Kor) 70 71 74
216 Ryan Moore 68 71 77