His lone birdie was a two footer at the par-five first, his 10th and arguably the easiest hole on the course. The rest was a struggle for Pádraig Harrington as he went out in 40 and then bogeyed his 16th and 17th to post a five over 76 and slip to tied 68th in the Northern Trust Open.

Only five players among the 75 who made the cut shot a higher score and while Riviera Country Club has been far from easy this week, 24 players broke par in the third round.

Overnight leader Retief Goosen went out in three under with no mistakes, made four bogeys in a six hole spell after the turn but then birdied the 16th and 17th and then lipped out for another birdie at the last as he carded as two under 69 to lead by two strokes on eight under par from Canada's Graham DeLaet (70).

Sang-Moon Bae (66), Carlos Ortiz (68), Sergio Garcia (68) and J.B. Holmes (69) are just three behind with Dustin Johnson, Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh, Jordan Spieth, Angel Cabrera, Ryan Moore and defending champion Bubba Watson all lurking four behind.

Harrington had to hole a seven footer to par the 10th, bogeyed the par-five 11th after bunker his third, and had to hole from 13 feet for par at the 12th. He then bogeyed the 15th (bunkered approach, missed four footer), short 16th (bunkered tee shot, missed six footer) and 18th (poor tee shot, missed eight footer) to turn in 40.

That birdie at the first repaired some of the damage but while he was a little better on the front nine, he missed too many fairways and holed little on the greens, dropping shots at the seventh and eighth to sign for a five over 76.