Rose goes back to basics

Golf: Justin Rose fired a second successive 65 to ensure he will take a one-shot lead into the final round of the PGA Tour Transitions…

Golf:Justin Rose fired a second successive 65 to ensure he will take a one-shot lead into the final round of the PGA Tour Transitions Championship at Innisbrook. Rose picked up five birdies over his first seven holes and added another on 18 en route to his six-under-par round.

The Englishman was 13 under after 54 holes — one stroke ahead of Zimbabwe’s Brendon de Jonge (66) and American Webb (67).

“This is a golf course that it’s easy to be patient on,” said Rose, who has missed just seven greens all week. “If you hit in the middle of the green, you two-putt par, and you know you’re not being lapped by the rest of the field.”

The world number 31’s back-to-basics approach has put him on course for a third PGA Tour title in under a year.

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“[I’d been] tinkering around with too many swing keys,” said the 30-year-old. “My goal for the next couple of weeks was to whittle it down to something very simple heading into Augusta.

“And I think that should still be my goal really, the next couple of weeks, just to really every day drop a thought, drop something, so you can go into thattournament as free and relaxed as possible.”

Gary Woodland and PGA Tour rookie Scott Stallings were two shots off the pace on 11 under with Nick Watney — last week’s winner at the WGC-Cadillac Championship in Miami — among a group of four Americans a further stroke off the pace alongside Brandt Snedeker and halfway co-leaders Chris Couch and Garrett Willis.

Scotland’s Martin Laird was in a tie for 10th on nine under after a 68 while England’s Paul Casey and Spain’s Sergio Garcia — in his first PGA Tour event in seven months — were seven under heading into Sunday.

World number one Martin Kaymer of Germany was nine shots off the lead on four under after a level-par 71.