THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Patrick Cantlay rallied from four shots behind and got far enough ahead that Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas couldn’t quite catch him Sunday in the Zozo Championship at Sherwood.

Cantlay closed with a 7-under 65 for a one-shot victory, the third of his career, and first in his home state of California. All three required making up a deficit of three shots or more.

As much as Cantlay celebrated a victory he felt was overdue, Rahm and Thomas were left to rue their mistakes.

Rahm took the lead with a birdie on the par-5 11th, only to drop shots on each of the next two holes, including the par-5 13th. The Spaniard had a chance to force a playoff, but narrowly missed from 15 feet on the par-3 17th and from 20 feet on the final hole. He shot 68.

Thomas, who started the round with a one-shot lead, had to scramble for par on the last two par 5s, and hit into hazards on consecutive holes down the stretch. His tee shot to a front pin on the par-3 15th plugged into thick grass, and Thomas did remarkably well to hack out to 30 feet and make bogey.

Cantlay, in the group ahead of Thomas and Rahm, bungled the par-5 16th by missing the green from 114 yards and making only his second bogey of the round, and the tournament. That reduced his lead to two shots.

Thomas drilled a drive and was in perfect position with a 4-iron. But he sent that out to the right, trying to avoid a shot left of the green, and it bounced off a tree and into the creek. After the penalty drop, he had to play a marvelous pitch-and-run off hard pan to get up-and-down for par.

But he needed birdies, and that didn’t come for Thomas until he needed to hole out from the 18th fairway for eagle. His approach landed 4 feet next to the hole. The birdie gave him a 69, and denied Rahm a small consolation. Rahm needed to finish second alone to return to No. 1 in the world.

Dustin Johnson, a Sherwood member who missed this week recovering from a positive coronavirus test, remains No. 1.

Cantlay moved back into the top 10. He has no weakness in his game except for the victory tally. Cantlay had gone more than a year since his last victory, when he rallied from three behind at Muirfield Village to win the Memorial. His other win was in Las Vegas in 2017 when he came from four shots back and won in a playoff.

At a tournament with low scoring, he had no choice but to produce his best of the week. Cantlay opened with four birdies in six holes to get in the mix, and he surged into the lead with four birdies in a five-hole stretch on the front nine.

The final birdie was the toughest, a 7-iron he hit at three-quarter speed that landed right next to the hole and rolled out to 10 feet for his third straight birdie.

Thomas and Rahm provided some help on the par-5 13th. Thomas went from thick rough to more thick rough and still had 189 yards for his third shot, and he ended up making a tough par save from the collection area behind the green. Rahm was in the fairway and in range, but he came up well short into a bunker, left that short of the green and missed an 8-foot par.

No one else was within four shots of Cantlay.

The other show at Sherwood was on the opposite side of the course, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson playing together in the final round with no fans. There was nothing to see, anyway.

Woods closed with a 74 and still beat Mickelson by four shots. Mickelson, coming off a victory last week on the PGA Tour Champions, had five 6s on his card. Both finished out of the top 70 against a 78-man field.

THIRD ROUND

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – It could get wild in the forest.

Exciting times lie ahead as Justin Thomas and Jon Rahm have positioned themselves for a Sunday showdown at the Zozo Championship at Sherwood.

Amongst a birdie barrage on Saturday, it was the second and third ranked players in the world who forced their way to the top with Rahm setting the pace and Thomas coming home with a wet sail.

Rahm set Sherwood alight with a sizzling bogey-free 9-under 63 to move to 18-under. Thomas settled for a 5-under 67 with birdies on the 16th and 17th holes ensuring he wrestled the lead away at 19-under.

The American Thomas found a way to score despite some inaccuracy off the tee and into the greens.

“It was a good fight, hung in there well. I felt like I definitely didn’t play as well as I did the first two days or didn’t have my best stuff by any means, but to shoot a round like that is huge on a course like this,” the former FedExCup champion said.

Spaniard Rahm hit every fairway on the round and needed just 25 putts. It was a welcome change from the opening two rounds where he needed 30 putts each day and lost strokes to the field. Well, the opening round and a half to be fair.

Rahm was five under on his final eight holes on Friday meaning he’s 14 under over his last 26. On Saturday, he was five under on his round through as many holes after three birdies and an eagle and turned in 30 before making three more on the back side.

“They started going in, that’s it. If we count Vegas, the last five and a half rounds my putter was absolutely cold, didn’t make anything at all,” Rahm said.

“It was that 20‑footer for eagle on 11 (Friday) that I made that just kind of freed me up a little bit, and I made a couple more putts. Then today… one dropped and it’s like OK, it’s possible to make putts and just keep going.”

Now the pair shake out as the most likely to be crowned champion, but both know it won’t be a simple scenario. Birdies rain down at Sherwood like arrows in a Robin Hood movie so these two aggressive players will not die wondering.

Plus there are plenty of players behind them who feel they have nothing to lose so they’ll be taking aim at each bullseye.

Lanto Griffin sits 17-under while Patrick Cantlay, Ryan Palmer, and Sebastian Munoz are just three off the lead at 16-under. Six players – Webb Simpson, Bubba Watson, Brian Harman, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Scottie Scheffler and Dylan Frittelli – all share seventh just four off the pace.

Griffin will play with the top dogs on Sunday and he’s relishing the chance. The Vivint Houston Open champion from last season is gearing up for his title defense in a few weeks and hopes to add another trophy to his cabinet prior.

“I’m going to have to play really well tomorrow, I’m aware of that. But it’s fun. This is what I dreamed about, the position I dreamed about being in my whole life,” Griffin said. “From being on mini tours, the Korn Ferry Tour, now to be here playing with the best players in the world in the final group, it’s a lot of fun.”

Griffin opened his round with four straight birdies and was the leader outright after a birdie on the 14th hole before a loose tee shot on the par-3 15th, found a penalty area. Despite that, and a closing hole bogey, he is ready for a Sunday chase.

“When it’s going your way, you can get on a heater and kind of like what I’ve done on the front nine, you’re never really out of it on a week like this,” he adds.

Thomas believes it.

“You literally can birdie every single hole out here… if you’re playing well, you can really get after it,” Thomas says. “I feel like you can just reel five in a row off like that… you just have to be in the right frame of mind for it.”

Rahm said he won’t be playing it safe or backing down either.

“Like it or not, you have to do it, it’s as simple as that,” he said about chasing birdies on the par-72 course that has seen a 69.048 scoring average through three rounds.

Interestingly enough, Thomas has been flawless on the back nine this week. He’s 14 under with 12 birdies and an eagle on holes 10-18 while he’s offset his seven front side birdies with three bogeys. Rahm is 10-under on the final nine. Griffin is 14 under on the front nine.

So get ready. Fireworks are set to ensue.

THIRD ROUND

THOUSAND OAKS, Cal. — Justin Thomas went from a fast finish one day to a fast start the next, and it carried him to a 7-under 65 on Friday and a one-shot lead in the Zozo Championship at Sherwood.

Thomas wasn’t particularly thrilled, except for his position, mainly because the final stretch of holes was still fresh on his mind and he closed with six consecutive pars on a day when the field made birdie or better just over 33% of the time.

Richy Werenski led the way with 12 birdies for a 61, the lowest score in a tour-sanctioned competition at Sherwood. The average score was 67.87.

Tiger Woods managed to beat that, making eight birdies in is round of 66, and he still didn’t pick up any shots against the lead. The defending champion at the Zozo Championship — he won last year in Japan — was still 12 shots behind.

“Got off to a much better start and kept rolling,” Woods said.

Thomas finished late Thursday afternoon with a 29 on the back nine at Sherwood for a 65. He began the second round on the back nine and ran off four straight birdies, chipping in on the par-3 12th, and played it in 31.

But after two birdies in three holes to start the front nine — he hit into the water on the par-5 second hole and still managed to escape with par — he didn’t convert any birdie chances.

Thomas was at 14-under 130, one stroke clear of Lanto Griffin and Dylan Frittelli, who each had a 65 and each made bogey on the final hole.

Griffin tied Thomas with a 5-foot birdie on the seventh hole and then a 5-iron that didn’t turn out the way he had envisioned — he aimed 25 feet left and hit it right at the flag, 15 feet behind it.

“Pushed it right at the flag and it lands a foot from the hole,” Griffin said. “Then Rickie (Fowler) hit right where I was trying to hit it and his caddie said, ‘Good shot.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, that’s where I was trying to hit it.’”

It worked out fine, but he dropped back with a clunky 9-iron on the ninth hole that came up nearly 30 yards short of the hole and he missed a 10-foot par putt.

Patrick Cantlay found his putting touch and and shot 65. He was two shots behind, along with Scottie Scheffler, who also had a 65.

Low scores were everywhere on a course that is short by PGA Tour standards and has five par 5s that are reachable in two, even without hitting driver off the tee. There has been little wind, pleasant weather. And different from the days of the Woods’ holiday event in December, a 78-man field makes it likely more players are going low, especially when they see what everyone else is doing.

Woods couldn’t be much worse from Thursday, especially on the par 5s. He played them in 3 over in the opening round of 76, his highest score in his 13th year playing Sherwood. He played them in 4 under on Friday.

Phil Mickelson played them in 3 over Friday, but it was really just a couple of par 5s that ate him up.

He sent his tee shot off the property to the left on the 11th hole and made bogey. And on the 13th, he sent two shots into what amounts to a jungle left of the fairway and made a quadruple-bogey 9. He shot 74 and was near the bottom of the pack, one week after winning for the second straight time on the 50-and-older PGA Tour Champions.

Making birdies is not a problem for Rory McIlroy. He’s just not getting much out of them. McIlroy made seven birdies in the opening round, but he had three bogeys, two double bogeys and one club snapped over his knee on the back nine. On Friday, he made eight birdies and still only managed a 67.

“So I’ve made 15 birdies in the first two days, which usually would put you right up at the top of the leaderboard. I just made too many mistakes,” McIlroy said. “It was the same story last week, sort of the same story at Winged Foot. Just one of those stretches where the good stuff’s there, but the bad stuff is sort of taking away from the fact that I’m hitting good shots and making birdies.”

Thomas has won the last four times he had a 36-hole lead, though this is different. Twenty players were within four shots of the lead, all of them at 10 under or better. He is playing well, making birdies and it was no time to let up.

“I played well. I’m not very pleased with the finish,” he said. “The last six holes, I would have liked to at least have got something. Having a 5-iron and a 5-wood out of the fairway into two par 5s and making two pars is not good. I just wasn’t near as tight and tidy those last four holes.”

FIRST ROUND

THOUSAND OAKS, Ca. — The scorecards of Sebastian Munoz and Tiger Woods were unusual for different reasons Thursday in the Zozo Championship at Sherwood. That was only good news for one of them.

Munoz twice holed out for eagle from a combined distance of 219 yards. He also had eight birdies. Throw in a wild tee shot for double bogey, three bogeys and only five pars and it added to an 8-under 64 and a one-shot lead.

“Not a normal round,” Munoz said.

That especially was the case for Woods. For the first time in his 1,277 rounds on the PGA TOUR as a pro, he made bogey or worse on three par 5s in a single round. That led to a 4-over 76 — by two shots his worst score in 49 rounds at Sherwood — that left him 12 shots out of the lead.

Munoz, the Colombian who played his college golf at North Texas, finished off his bizarre round by saving par from a narrow section of the front bunker with a 15-foot putt on the 18th hole.

He was one shot ahead of Tyrrell Hatton, the hottest golfer this month, and Justin Thomas, who had a hot finish. Hatton won the European Tour flagship event at Wentworth, flew to Las Vegas for the CJ CUP and tied for third. Thomas shot 29 on the back nine at Sherwood. They each had a 65.

Whether it was shocking to see Woods so far back on this course is a matter of perspective. He is a five-time winner at Sherwood, along with five runner-up finishes, against small fields in a holiday exhibition. He was playing only his third competitive round in the last seven weeks, and his first since missing the cut in the U.S. Open a month ago.

The rust was evident, and a few bad breaks didn’t help his cause. He pushed his tee shot on the par-5 11th to the right, normally not a big deal except the ball stopped rolling in the dirt between two trees about 18 inches apart. Woods couldn’t believe it when he got to his ball and wasted no time inverting a sand wedge to hit out left-handed.

That didn’t make it back to the fairway, and the rough is thicker than he ever saw it in the 12 previous times playing Sherwood in December. The course recently over-seeded with rye and the grass is thick, as it was at Shadow Creek. He laid up from there and made bogey.

On the par-5 13th, he sent his tee shot again to the right, partially blocked by a tree. He tried to gouge out a mid-iron and it didn’t make it to the second section of fairway. Another vicious swing from thick grass advanced it only 130 yards to a bunker some 50 yards to the hole. The sand shot didn’t quite reach the green. His putt from 55 feet didn’t reach the hole He made double bogey.

And then on the par-5 16th, a tee shot down the right side took a wild bounce to the right, and a marshal carefully going down the bank toward the creek was not a good sign. He took a penalty drop, laid up and sent wedge just over the green, forcing him to get up-and-down for bogey.

The one smile came on an 85-foot putt for birdie on the 14th. Smiles were rare on this day.

Munoz smiled in disbelief. His round began with a three-putt bogey from 7 feet. He followed with four birdies on the next five holes — he missed a 7-foot birdie putt on the par-5 fifth — and then he hammered a 9-iron from 168 yards that faded gently toward the hole and rolled in for an eagle.

“Once you see the guy throw up the touchdown sign, it’s good,” Munoz said of a volunteer behind the green.

His other eagle looked like it might be a bogey. He hit 3-wood that crashed into a tree near the 16th green, and Munoz was waiting for it to splash down in the creek. Instead, it went backward into the fairway, 51 yards from the hole.

“My caddie was like, ‘Be aggressive. You already took a risk on shot No. 2, so might as well just keep going.’ All right, sure,” he said. “So I throw it up there and find the hole. It was pretty sweet.”

Roughly half the 78-man field shot in the 60s on a pleasant day in the Conejo Valley. Woods wasn’t the only one who didn’t take advantage. Rory McIlroy had two double bogeys sandwiched around two birdies at the end of his round of 73. Phil Mickelson, a winner last week on the PGA TOUR Champions, needed four birdies on his last eight holes to shoot 72.