Stephan Jaeger stood atop a transformed leaderboard at Torrey Pines Thursday as the Farmers Insurance Open field shrank heading into the final two rounds.
The German, with an 8-under 64, led Nicolai Højgaard of Denmark by one stroke, and Thomas Detry of Belgium and Matthieu Pavon of France, tied for third, by two strokes.
Tony Finau, at 6-under for the day, jumped up among the leaders to round out the top five, in a tie with Michael Kim, a Torrey Pines High alum; they trail by three strokes.
It was a hard day though for Wednesday’s leaders. Both Kevin Yu and Patrick Cantlay fell to six strokes back, tied with a dozen other golfers, including 2022 Farmers open champion Luke List.
Ryo Hisatsune dipped further, to eight strokes off the pace, joined by last year’s champ, Max Homa.
Other San Diego locals Xander Schauffele and Charley Hoffman, like Finau, climbed the leaderboard. They tied with 11 others, including Hideki Matsuyama – who had a hole in one Thursday – at five strokes back.
Jaeger, who has yet to win on the PGA Tour, finished his day with a flourish Thursday, with an eagle. And he’s not daunted by the action shifting to the South Course for the final rounds Friday and Saturday.
“I’m pumped to play the South Course two more days,” he told the Associated Press. “I love this place. This is probably one of my favorite tournaments every year.”
Schauffele is No. 5 in the Official World Golf Ranking, the highest-ranked player in the field. Cantlay and Homa follow in sixth and seventh.
The Farmers open field of 156, meanwhile, dropped as notables, including Sungjae Im, Collin Morikama, Victor Perez and Jason Day, didn’t make the cut.
Schauffele, meanwhile, continued the PGA Tour’s longest active streak of moving on. He has done so in 36 straight tournaments; he last failed to make the cut at the 2022 Masters.
The winner will receive $1.62 million, part of the $9 million purse.
