Justin Rose delivers a Tiger-like performance at Torrey Pines. He leads by 6 shots

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Joel Dahmen arrived to the PGA Tour too late to see Tiger Woods in his prime at Torrey Pines. He was witness to what might have been the next best thing Saturday — Justin Rose in control of his game and making the rest of the field feel hopeless in the Farmers Insurance Open.

Rose stretched his lead to as many as eight shots in a performance Woods could appreciate. He was slowed by a few mistakes on the back nine and wound up with a 4-under 68 to lead by six, the largest 54-hole lead at the tournament since Woods led by eight in 2008.

“I’ve enjoyed playing the golf course this week. I want to continue to enjoy the week as a whole,” Rose said. “And yeah, it’s another great round in good weather on an awesome golf course.”

Rose started with a four-shot lead and pulled away with a sublime three-hole stretch of birdies on the front nine — a pitching wedge to a back pin to 6 feet on No. 5, a 7-wood to pin-high on the par-5 sixth and a 9-iron over a tree to 5 feet with the pin tucked right over a bunker.

“He hit at some pins that I was very impressed at, but then they went to 4 feet and he tapped it in for birdie,” Dahmen said. “You know you’re playing really well when you’re doing that. And it was kind of one after another.”

But the seventh hole got his attention, even though Rose sheepishly conceded he wasn't trying to be that aggressive.

“There’s no room to miss it,” Dahmen said. "The wind is starting to puff off that canyon there so it always plays longer. So he’s got to hit it high over the tree out of the first cut — it could fly, come out dead — and he hits this thing to the moon, it comes down to 4 feet.

“You don’t hit that shot in a practice round let alone when you have a six- or seven-shot lead on Saturday,” he said. “At that point, that was just kind of like, ‘OK, you win.’"

Rose was at 21-under 195, breaking by three shots the 54-hole tournament record that previously belonged to him in 2019 when he won, along with Kyle Stanley (2012), Woods (2008) and Woody Blackburn (1985). Stanley is the only one who didn't win, losing a five-shot lead.

Rose has been around long to take nothing for granted. And he was the beneficiary of Dustin Johnson, the world's No. 1 player at the time, losing a six-shot lead in the 2017 HSBC Champions.

“There’s never going to be any complacency,” Rose said. “I think there’s always enough respect for the game of golf in the back of your mind that you’ve got to do everything right tomorrow. You’re going to come out, have to be focused, have to play well.”

Woods practically owned the public course along the Pacific bluffs with eight professional wins, including the U.S. Open.

Brooks Koepka, in his return to the PGA Tour from Saudi-funded LIV Golf, played a solid round except for the short putts. He turned a 3-foot par putt into a double bogey on the par-3 11th, and he had a 3-foot birdie putt turn into a bogey on the par-5 ninth, his final hole. He missed six putts inside 5 feet and shot 73.

“I’ve never felt comfortable on poa. You just miss a few and you’ve got zero confidence,” he said. “I tried to take the break out to still be aggressive like I normally am, but I wasn’t even hitting the hole. I don’t know,. I’m just going to chalk it up to just a bad day. But I’m happy with everything else."

Is it over?

“My only hope is if he doesn’t set his alarm or he somehow starts hitting in the rough on the back nine maybe,” Dahmen said after his 68 that put him six behind, leading the B-flight. “I don’t know. The way he’s playing and what he’s doing, I would be pleased with second place.”

It's a big week for Dahmen, who finished outside the top 100 in the FedEx Cup in the year they reduced full cards from the top 125. He has conditional status and only got into the Farmers Insurance Open because of two courses allowing for a larger field.

He also has received a sponsor exemption into the WM Phoenix Open next week, so it’s a good time to help turn his fortunes. A strong Sunday would do wonders.

Rose, meanwhile, continues to enjoy what he once called his “Indian summer.”

At age 45, he was the oldest player by seven years on Europe’s winning Ryder Cup team. Even if asked — if Luke Donald declines a third captaincy — Rose said last week his focus would be on playing in the 2027 Ryder Cup.

A victory would move him to as high as No. 4 in the world ranking.

“Justin is really good at golf right now,” Dahmen said.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Joel Dahmen lines up his putt on the second green of the South Course at Torrey Pines during the third round of the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

Justin Rose, of England, walks off the 18th green of the South Course at Torrey Pines during the third round of the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

Justin Rose, of England, lines up his putt on the fifth green of the South Course at Torrey Pines during the third round of the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

Justin Rose, of England, at right, putts on the third green of the South Course at Torrey Pines during the third round of the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

Justin Rose, of England, acknowledges the gallery after making a putt on the sixth green of the South Course at Torrey Pines during the third round of the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

Democrats Christian Menefee and Amanda Edwards were competing Saturday for a vacant U.S. House seat from Houston, a special election that will narrow the GOP's already slim House majority.

Polls were closed in a runoff between Menefee, the Harris County attorney, and Edwards, a former Houston City Council member. The winner will replace the late Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner for the rest of his term, which ends when a new Congress is sworn in to office in January 2027.

Turner died in March 2025, but the first, all-parties primary for the special election didn’t occur until November under a schedule set by GOP Gov. Greg Abbott. Because no candidate won more than 50% of the vote, the contest moved to Saturday's runoff between the top two vote-getters.

Abbott argued that Houston officials needed the six months between Turner’s death and the first round of voting to prepare for the special election, but Democrats criticized the long wait as a move designed to give the GOP a slightly bigger cushion in the House for difficult votes. The 18th District is safely Democratic with minority residents making up most of the voters.

Edwards, 44, referenced the long vacancy in a video she posted to social media while campaigning Saturday, saying voters have gone too long without a voice in Washington.

“Today marks the day where you're finally going to get your voice back,” she said.

Menefee, 37, was endorsed by several prominent Texas Democrats including former congressman Beto O’Rourke and Rep. Jasmine Crockett. He was joined Saturday by Crockett, who is running for the U.S. Senate.

“I”m looking to bring a fight to Washington, D.C., and I need your help to do it," he said as he stood beside Crockett in a social media video.

Menefee ousted an incumbent in 2020 to become Harris County’s first Black county attorney, representing it in civil cases, and he has joined legal challenges of President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration.

Edwards served four years on the Houston City Council starting in 2016. She ran for U.S. Senate in 2020 but finished fifth in a 12-person primary. She unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee in the 2024 primary, and when Lee died that July, local Democrats narrowly nominated Turner over Edwards as Lee’s replacement.

Menefee finished ahead of Edwards in the primary, but Edwards picked up the endorsement of the third-place finisher, state Rep. Jolanda Jones, who said Edwards had skills “best suited to go against Trump.”

After Saturday, yet another election lies ahead in little over a month. Both Menefee and Edwards are on the ballot again on March 3, when they will face Democratic Rep. Al Green in another election — this one a Democratic primary in a newly drawn 18th congressional district, for the full term that starts in 2027.

GOP lawmakers who control Texas state government drew a new map last summer for this year’s midterms, pushed by Trump to create five more winnable seats for Republicans to help preserve their majority.

Winter weather added to voters' confusion, forcing local officials to cancel two days of advance voting this week, prompting civil rights group to go to court to win a two-day extension, into Thursday.

Texas Congressional Candidate Amanda Edwards waves at a voter at a polling location at Acres Homes MultiService Center on Election Day, in Houston, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/ Karen Warren)

Texas Congressional Candidate Christian D. Menefee holds up one of his flyers as a voter passes by in a car while he visited a polling location at Acres Homes MultiService Center on Election Day, in Houston, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/ Karen Warren)

Texas Congressional Candidate Amanda Edwards waves at a voter at a polling location at Acres Homes MultiService Center on Election Day, in Houston, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/ Karen Warren)

Texas Congressional Candidate Christian D. Menefee gets a photo with poll worker, Jessica Barraza, as he visited a polling location at Acres Homes MultiService Center on Election Day, in Houston, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/ Karen Warren)

Texas Congressional Candidate Christian D. Menefee shakes hands with Patrick Edge, a poll worker for Amanda Edwards, as he visited a polling location at Acres Homes MultiService Center on Election Day, in Houston, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/ Karen Warren)