Henrik Bjørnstad was leading the game for nine holes after what he told Dagbladet was an "insane performance" on Sunday morning. Leaving players like Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia and Phil Mickelson behind, he made four birdies on five holes, and is the first Norwegian ever to be in the lead of a PGA tournament.
He instantly leaped up 401 places on PGA's ranking list of best male Golf players, from the 900th to 499th place.
"It's been a really wonderful week!" Bjørnstad said in his blog. "I have played really well, and I was battling with the best almost all week... What more can you ask for only a few weeks into the new year?"
Bjørnstad ended the game with 7 under par at 10th place, and can look forward to a nice heap of prize money. He is currently on his way to the next PGA event, the Phoenix Open in Arizona.
"The last few years there's been about 600,000 spectators at the game in Phoenix, so it's probably going to be a loud event," Bjørnstad wrote in his blog.
Tiger Woods eventually won the La Jolla tournament, after a close game with Australian Nathan Green and Jose-Maria Olazabal from Spain.