Dustin Johnson has a strong comfort level at Royal Greens Golf Club. He’s been the best-performing player in the short history of the Saudi International with a victory in 2019 and a runnerup finish last year.
On Saturday, D.J. made his move toward a first victory for 2021. He finished birdie-birdie for a four-under par 66 that got him to 13-under par, good for a two-shot lead heading into Sunday’s final round in Saudi Arabia.
D.J.’s closest pursuer in Frenchman Victor Perez. Perez equaled Johnson’s 66 to get in the clubhouse at 11-under. Perez has one win on the European Tour and is ranked 35th in the world.
Johnson had a good chance to up his lead to three at the closing hole, a par five. He blasted a huge drive and with the tees moved up, had just a seven-iron in from 188 yards out. He hit a magnificent shot that stopped just 11 feet for eagle. His putt did everything but go in, stopping hole-high on the right lip. But it was a familiar scene for D.J., who missed at least three birdie attempts inside 10 feet. Still, the world’s No. 1 made enough to have everyone looking up at him heading for the final 18.
“It was a good finish,” said Johnson, who rolled in a nine-footer at the 17th. “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 six there. Other 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.
“It’s always good to win no matter when it is — it’s a really good field. I’d definitely be very pleased. It’s a pretty big golf tournament and it will definitely give me a lot of confidence for the rest of the year.”
That double-bogey for Johnson came when his second into the par four 13th hit a little too close to the edge of the hazard and ended up rolling in. He dropped on the fringe, his chip went five feet past the hole and he would miss the putt for bogey. It was his only gaff of the day.
That wasn’t the case for Kevin Na, who birded the 10th and 11th to get to 12-under and tied Johnson for the lead at that point. But Na ran into a lot of trouble, playing his final six holes in five-over par, including double-bogeys at the 14th and 17th holes. Na ended up at seven-under where he’s tied with Bryson DeChambeau and three others.
Once again Tyrrell Hatton is in contention. He shot 66 t finish at 10-under par along with Tony Finau (67), Andy Sullivan (68) and Soren Kjeldsen (65).
Saudi International Scoreboard:
