Lahiri, who shot 71 and 72 in the first two rounds, did find a lot of greens and was unable to convert some of the chances that came his way. He totalled one-under 215 ahead of the final round.
The spotlight stayed on Tiger Woods, whose 70 saw him climb from the bubble at T-65 to T-39.
Meanwhile, Alex Noren of Sweden two-putted for birdie on the final hole for a 3-under 69 that gave him a one-shot lead going into the final round.
Jon Rahm, the defending champion who needs to win to reach No. 1 in the world, took double bogey on the last hole for a 75 and fell four shots behind.
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Woods only hit three fairways and still managed a 70 and was eight shots behind leader, Noren. Woods could still make a dash for a Top-10 of 15.
Woods hit just three of 14 fairways and nine greens in regulation, but he kept it together with his short game. On another warm day at Torrey Pines, Woods got up and down seven times in nine chances to salvage a 2-under 70 in the third round.
"Well, that's just fighting, you know, fighting and grinding," Woods said after missing a birdie putt of just over 10 feet at the par-5 ninth hole to end his four-birdie, two- bogey round.
"I tried as hard as I possibly could out there. I didn't have much, but I fought and put up a score and made some putts."
While Woods went all over from the tee, his soft touch saw him take just 26 putts. Woods has hit just six of his last 28 fairways. Woods played with Brandt Snedeker (74, 1 over) and Sung Kang (75, 2 over).
Rounds of 70-66-69 sent the 35-year-old Noren to 11-under at Torrey Pines for the 54-hole lead in just his second start as an official PGA TOUR member.
Noren played college golf in the USA at Oklahoma State so he's not completely foreign to American courses. But he hadn't played Torrey Pines before this week.
Noren sits one clear of Ryan Palmer and a further 14 players sit within four shots of the lead including Justin Rose, Jason Day and Jon Rahm.
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