TIGER WOODS' 66 GIVES HIM TWO-SHOT LEAD FOR FINAL ROUND
FROM THE US PGA TOUR WEBSITE
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Tiger Woods is one round away from returning to No. 1 in the world.
With key par saves early in his round and an eagle for the third straight day at Bay Hill, Woods seized control Saturday with a 6-under 66 to race by Justin Rose and build a two-shot lead going into the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard.
THIRD-ROUND LEADERBOARD
Par 216 (3x72)
Players from USA unless stated
205 Tiger Woods 69 70 66
207 Rickie Fowler 73 67 67, John Hugh 67 69 71, Justin Rose (England) 65 70 72.
208 Thorbjorn Olesen (Denmark) 69 73 66, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spain) 69 71 68, Jimmy Walker 69 69 70, Bill Haas 69 66 73.
SELECTED SCORES
211 Ian Poulter (England) 72 69 70 (T14).
214 Sergio Garcia (Spain) 72 69 73 (T25).
215 Martin Laird (Scotland) 74 73 68 (T33).
218 Greg Owen (England) 74 73 71, Lee Westwood (England) 71 75 72 (T61).
221 Graeme McDowell (Northern Ireland) 72 74 75 (T71)
TO VIEW ALL THE SCORES
CLICK HERE
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Tiger Woods is one round away from returning to No. 1 in the world.
With key par saves early in his round and an eagle for the third straight day at Bay Hill, Woods seized control Saturday with a 6-under 66 to race by Justin Rose and build a two-shot lead going into the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard.
Woods was at 11-under 205, two
shots ahead of Rickie Fowler (67), John Huh (71) and Rose, who at one
point was six shots ahead of Woods. Rose had a 39 on the back nine and
wound up with a 72.
Woods hasn't been No. 1 in the world ranking since the last week of October 2010. That can change Sunday with a victory on a Bay Hill course where he already has won seven times, and from a position where he hardly ever loses. An eighth win would tie Sam Snead for the most wins at a single event on Tour.
Woods, who is also in line to move to No. 1 in the FedExCup standings, is 41-2 on the US Tour when he has the outright lead going into the final round.
"Just because I've won here doesn't ensure that I'm going to win the tournament," Woods said. "The conditions are different. The game might be different. But the objective is still to put myself in position to win the golf tournament and somehow get it done on Sunday. Over the course of my career, I've done a pretty decent job of that."
A year ago, Woods was No. 18 in the world and without a TOUR win for two years. Now he is going for his third TOUR victory this year, and sixth dating to Bay Hill last season.
"It was one of my goals to get back to that position after being out of the top 50 there for a while, being hurt and having all my points come off when I couldn't play," Woods said. "That was not a fun stretch. But I had to get healthy in order to compete, and so far I've had five wins on TOUR. So I'm heading in the right direction."
Rose had a three-shot lead on the back nine until he crumbled, making three bogeys over the last six holes.
He didn't even make it into the final group off the tee on Sunday.
Fowler dropped only one shot on a muggy day with a short burst of showers, closing with a par from the back bunker on the 18th. The last time Fowler and Woods were paired together in the final round was at the Memorial, where Woods closed with a 67 to win and Fowler had an 84.
Fowler was only three shots behind going into the final round of The Honda Classic at the start of the Florida Swing and closed with a 74. He also had a bad Sunday at TPC Blue Monster at Trump Doral (78), though he was never in serious contention. Without knowing where his 67 would leave him at Bay Hill, he sounded determined to finish stronger."It was disappointing to play the way I did those two Sundays, but I felt really good with where I was at, putting myself in position to go win a golf tournament or have a good finish and kind of taking myself out of it," Fowler said. "So it was a little bit of a kick in the butt to go out there and finish off tournaments. So I'm looking forward to tomorrow and seeing if we can go do that."
Nine players are separated by three shots going into the final round, though the dynamic takes on a different vibe at Bay Hill.
Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark had a 66 and was in the group at 8-under 208, along with Jimmy Walker (70), Bill Haas (73), Ken Duke (70) and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano of Spain, who played with Woods and had a 68.
Woods narrowly beat the Spaniard a year ago in the opening round of the World Golf Championship-Accenture Match Play Championship. Fernandez-
Castano noticed a big difference one year later.
"He's definitely more comfortable," he said. "I remember at the Match Play, his routine was longer. You could see he wasn't confident with what he was doing."
Woods, who already had won twice this year, has a clearer vision of what he's doing and where the ball is going. He surged ahead with a 6-iron into 12 feet on the 15th for birdie, and another 6-iron into 20 feet on the 16th for an eagle that put him atop the leaderboard.
Woods has three eagles this week -- and six for the year -- compared with four eagles all of last season on the US PGA Tour.
"I made a few putts, and that's what I was pleased with today," Woods said.
Some of the most important putts were for par. Woods finished Friday's round with three straight bogeys, and he started Saturday with a 12-footer for par from behind the cup on the first hole. He poured that in, and it set the tone for the day.
Woods also made an 8-foot par putt on the fifth hole, and a 7-footer for par on No. 8. That was keeping him from losing ground, because there was nothing about the way Rose played that indicated he would come back to the field. The turnaround was slow and steady, and then shockingly swift.
Rose opened with an 18-foot birdie on the first hole, a tap-in birdie on the third and then a 20-foot eagle putt from just short of the fourth green. At that point, Woods was six shots out of the lead after his two-putt birdie on the sixth. Woods followed with a 7-iron into 2 feet on the seventh, and two tough pars. He got up-and-down from the back bunker on No. 8, and then caught a huge break on the ninth when his tee shot was headed out-of-bounds and was hit a tree to stay in play.
Rose slowly began to leak. A three-putt from long range on the seventh. A missed 6-footer for par on the 10th. He still was three shots clear of Woods after a short birdie putt on the par-5 12th, and that's when it changed -- and quickly.
Rose three-putted from 60 feet on the fringe at the 13th with a weak attempt at his second putt. Four groups ahead of him, Woods rolled in his 20-foot eagle putt, and just like that, they were tied. Rose compounded his problems with a shot he sliced so badly on the par-3 14th that it nearly went out-of-bounds, and he had to scramble for bogey to fall behind for the first time.
He failed to birdie the 16th, three-putted the 17th and suddenly was a forgotten figure on the leaderboard.
Woods hasn't been No. 1 in the world ranking since the last week of October 2010. That can change Sunday with a victory on a Bay Hill course where he already has won seven times, and from a position where he hardly ever loses. An eighth win would tie Sam Snead for the most wins at a single event on Tour.
Woods, who is also in line to move to No. 1 in the FedExCup standings, is 41-2 on the US Tour when he has the outright lead going into the final round.
"Just because I've won here doesn't ensure that I'm going to win the tournament," Woods said. "The conditions are different. The game might be different. But the objective is still to put myself in position to win the golf tournament and somehow get it done on Sunday. Over the course of my career, I've done a pretty decent job of that."
A year ago, Woods was No. 18 in the world and without a TOUR win for two years. Now he is going for his third TOUR victory this year, and sixth dating to Bay Hill last season.
"It was one of my goals to get back to that position after being out of the top 50 there for a while, being hurt and having all my points come off when I couldn't play," Woods said. "That was not a fun stretch. But I had to get healthy in order to compete, and so far I've had five wins on TOUR. So I'm heading in the right direction."
Rose had a three-shot lead on the back nine until he crumbled, making three bogeys over the last six holes.
He didn't even make it into the final group off the tee on Sunday.
Fowler dropped only one shot on a muggy day with a short burst of showers, closing with a par from the back bunker on the 18th. The last time Fowler and Woods were paired together in the final round was at the Memorial, where Woods closed with a 67 to win and Fowler had an 84.
Fowler was only three shots behind going into the final round of The Honda Classic at the start of the Florida Swing and closed with a 74. He also had a bad Sunday at TPC Blue Monster at Trump Doral (78), though he was never in serious contention. Without knowing where his 67 would leave him at Bay Hill, he sounded determined to finish stronger."It was disappointing to play the way I did those two Sundays, but I felt really good with where I was at, putting myself in position to go win a golf tournament or have a good finish and kind of taking myself out of it," Fowler said. "So it was a little bit of a kick in the butt to go out there and finish off tournaments. So I'm looking forward to tomorrow and seeing if we can go do that."
Nine players are separated by three shots going into the final round, though the dynamic takes on a different vibe at Bay Hill.
Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark had a 66 and was in the group at 8-under 208, along with Jimmy Walker (70), Bill Haas (73), Ken Duke (70) and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano of Spain, who played with Woods and had a 68.
Woods narrowly beat the Spaniard a year ago in the opening round of the World Golf Championship-Accenture Match Play Championship. Fernandez-
Castano noticed a big difference one year later.
"He's definitely more comfortable," he said. "I remember at the Match Play, his routine was longer. You could see he wasn't confident with what he was doing."
Woods, who already had won twice this year, has a clearer vision of what he's doing and where the ball is going. He surged ahead with a 6-iron into 12 feet on the 15th for birdie, and another 6-iron into 20 feet on the 16th for an eagle that put him atop the leaderboard.
Woods has three eagles this week -- and six for the year -- compared with four eagles all of last season on the US PGA Tour.
"I made a few putts, and that's what I was pleased with today," Woods said.
Some of the most important putts were for par. Woods finished Friday's round with three straight bogeys, and he started Saturday with a 12-footer for par from behind the cup on the first hole. He poured that in, and it set the tone for the day.
Woods also made an 8-foot par putt on the fifth hole, and a 7-footer for par on No. 8. That was keeping him from losing ground, because there was nothing about the way Rose played that indicated he would come back to the field. The turnaround was slow and steady, and then shockingly swift.
Rose opened with an 18-foot birdie on the first hole, a tap-in birdie on the third and then a 20-foot eagle putt from just short of the fourth green. At that point, Woods was six shots out of the lead after his two-putt birdie on the sixth. Woods followed with a 7-iron into 2 feet on the seventh, and two tough pars. He got up-and-down from the back bunker on No. 8, and then caught a huge break on the ninth when his tee shot was headed out-of-bounds and was hit a tree to stay in play.
Rose slowly began to leak. A three-putt from long range on the seventh. A missed 6-footer for par on the 10th. He still was three shots clear of Woods after a short birdie putt on the par-5 12th, and that's when it changed -- and quickly.
Rose three-putted from 60 feet on the fringe at the 13th with a weak attempt at his second putt. Four groups ahead of him, Woods rolled in his 20-foot eagle putt, and just like that, they were tied. Rose compounded his problems with a shot he sliced so badly on the par-3 14th that it nearly went out-of-bounds, and he had to scramble for bogey to fall behind for the first time.
He failed to birdie the 16th, three-putted the 17th and suddenly was a forgotten figure on the leaderboard.
THIRD-ROUND LEADERBOARD
Par 216 (3x72)
Players from USA unless stated
205 Tiger Woods 69 70 66
207 Rickie Fowler 73 67 67, John Hugh 67 69 71, Justin Rose (England) 65 70 72.
208 Thorbjorn Olesen (Denmark) 69 73 66, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spain) 69 71 68, Jimmy Walker 69 69 70, Bill Haas 69 66 73.
SELECTED SCORES
211 Ian Poulter (England) 72 69 70 (T14).
214 Sergio Garcia (Spain) 72 69 73 (T25).
215 Martin Laird (Scotland) 74 73 68 (T33).
218 Greg Owen (England) 74 73 71, Lee Westwood (England) 71 75 72 (T61).
221 Graeme McDowell (Northern Ireland) 72 74 75 (T71)
TO VIEW ALL THE SCORES
CLICK HERE
Labels: US PGA TOUR
posted by Colin |
See story on its own page | Saturday, March 23, 2013
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