Hoffman leads, Tiger struggles

He raised great expectations with fiery displays on the opening two days of the Hero World Challenge, but then came the hard part.

Just as talk of Tigers Woods’ successful return to competitive golf had started to do the rounds, the 42-old-year lost momentum on the penultimate day, falling off the pace set by the leaders on a windy, hot day here on Saturday and affirming a return to full-blown competitive golf was still some distance away.

Following rounds of 69 and 68 that saw him placed tied fifth at the halfway stage, Woods found it difficult to handle the blustery conditions, carding a three over ar round of 75 for a total of four-under 212 and dropping to tied 10th. Overnight leader Charley Hoffman led the field by five strokes at 14under 202.

Woods is at four under, his back has held up well and he feels he can “fight his way back” from here.

On the day though, he would have hoped things to go better as it took him 14 holes in Round Three to get to his first birdie said Tiger after his round, “It’s ridiculous it took me 14 holes to make a birdie. “At that time, I had already played four par 5s and nothing happened. But hey, it’s just one of those days. I fought through it and tomorrow’s another fight.”

On a day when wind was the strongest and only five players carded sub-pars, Hoffman just rolled along.