That moved the 29-year-old to 17 under and vaulted him 44 places up the leaderboard.

American Dominic Bozzelli lies second on 16 under after a three-under 69 at the Nicklaus Tournament Course - the first three rounds have been played over three different layouts with a 54-hole cut taking place ahead of Sunday's final round at PGA West - with halfway leader Hudson Swafford, Brian Harman, Bud Cauley and Chad Campbell a shot further back.

Hadwin was in danger of missing the cut when he started his round on four under, but birdied six holes in a row from the second and threw in another on the ninth to turn in 29.

Five succesive gains from the 11th put Hadwin in sight of a sub-60 round, and when he holed from seven feet on the penultimate hole it looked as though he may even have a chance to match Jim Furyk's PGA record low round of 58.

However, he almost undid his good work by missing the green at the last, only to get up-and-down successfully to maintain a blemish-free card.

"I thought about it (breaking 60) on 11 walking off," Hadwin told pgatour.com.

"I walked up 17 and I said to my caddie Joe 'it looks like there's a lot more people than when we teed off today!'

"I was shaking, I really was. I knew what was at stake and the last thing I wanted to do was miss a three-footer for 59.

"(It was) perfect I guess, I got away with a few shots on the back nine and for whatever reason whenever I hit a putt it went in.

"Everybody talks about being in the zone and it being your day - it was my day.

"It's my first event of the year so it's exciting to get the nerves back again and have a chance to win a golf tournament."

Phil Mickelson had been in contention at the halfway stage but found water en route to a double bogey on the 18th as he shot 73 on the Stadium Course to lie eight shots back.

Scotland's Martin Laird leads the British challenge on 11 under after a 71 at LaQuinta.