Tiger takes Day Three lead at Tour Championship
Woods one round away from first win since 2013
ATLANTA » Tiger Woods is three shots ahead and one round away from capping his comeback season with a moment that has defined his career. Winning. Woods played the most dynamic golf he has all year on Saturday with six birdies in his opening seven holes to build a five-shot lead. He cooled from there with a few mistakes and had to settle for a 5-under 65 and a three-shot lead over Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose in the Tour Championship.
He has the 54-hole lead for the first time since his last victory in 2013 at the Bridgestone Invitational. He has never lost an official tournament when leading by more than two shots going into the final round, and his closing record with the lead is 42-2 on the PGA Tour.
Woods has never been in better position to show he’s all the way back from four back surgeries that once made him fear he might never play again.
“I’ve gone through a lot this year to get myself to this point, and understanding and fighting my way through it,” Woods said at the microphone following his round. “I’m certainly much more equipped than I was in March because of what I’ve gone through.”
Wood was at 12-under 198 and will be paired for the first time in final group with McIlroy on the PGA Tour.
McIlroy birdied two of his last three holes for a 66.
“It’s obviously exciting for the golf tournament. It’s exciting for golf in general that he’s up there,” McIlroy said. “But for me, all I can do is concentrate on myself. The game is hard enough without looking at other people. Go out there, take care of my business, and hopefully that’s good enough.”
Rose started the third round tied with Woods, but that didn’t last for too long.
Rose opened with two straight bogeys before battling back, but the world’s No. 1 player already was four shots behind after four holes. He narrowed the gap with a birdie on the Tiger Woods tips his hat after finishing the 18th hole while maintaining the lead at 12-under par during the third round of the Tour Championship golf tournament Saturday in Atlanta.
16th as Woods had to scramble for bogey, a two-shot swing.
“In some ways, it felt like a Sunday just with the energy,” Rose said after carding a 68. “But I knew that it was halfway through a Saturday. Just wanted to sort of chisel a few back and give myself a chance going into tomorrow.”
There used to be no chance against Woods when he was atop the leaderboard going into the final round.
His only losses with the 54-hole lead were the Quad City Classic in 1996 when he was 20 and making third start as a pro, and the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine against Y.E. Yang. He also lost a twoshot lead to Lee Westwood in Germany at a European Tour event in 2000. Now? Woods has gone more than five years without winning. He also has won enough times — 90 tournaments around the world — to remember how to do it.
“It’s a little more unknown now,” Rose said following his round. “Obviously, his history, his statistics from this point are impeccable. They’re incredible. But he’s human, and there’s a lot on it for him tomorrow, as well as the rest of us.” The start was simply mesmerizing. Woods poured in a 20-foot birdie putt on the first hole. His wedge settled 8 feet below the hole on No. 3. His 20-foot birdie putt on No. 4 tumbled into the center of the cup with perfect pace. Two short birdies followed. And when he finally missed a fairway at No. 7, Woods hit a 9-iron from the bunker that hopped out of the first cut to about 5 feet for a sixth birdie in seven holes.
The cheers were endless, and there was no doubting what was going on.
“I’ve heard the roars all day, and it’s been phenomenal,” Paul Casey said after
Tiger Woods hits out of the sand to the 15th green during the third round of the Tour Championship golf tournament on Saturday.
finishing up with a 66 on the day. “What an atmosphere it is out there this week.”
Woods, however, made only one birdie over his last 11 holes, a wedge to 7 feet on No. 12. He missed badly on his tee shot at the par-3 ninth, and the shaggy rough to the right of the 16th fairway caused the face of his club to open, missing to the right.
His flop shot didn’t get up the hill and rolled back toward him, and his next pitch was a bumpand-run played to perfection that kept him from another double bogey.
McIlroy also started strong, and being in the group ahead of Woods, he knew exactly what was happening all throughout the day as the crowds roared with each stroke Woods cut from his score.
On Sunday, he get a front-row seat. The only other time they were paired together in the fourth round was at the 2015 Masters, when both were 10 shots behind Jordan Spieth.
Rose won’t be in the final group, but he has plenty on the line even if he doesn’t catch Woods. He likely needs to finish in the top five to be assured of winning the FedEx Cup and the $10 million bonus. Wouldn’t you know. Just as the deadline for this week’s column came due the weather here along the shore finally stabilized and it looks like the anglers will be able to get back on the water. What kind of fishing they will have will have to be determined. Prior to this past Wednesday we had about two solid weeks of rain, wind, fog and then the effects of Hurricane Florence that thankfully just churned up the ocean, raised some tides and gave us some rain.
I am quite familiar with the areas around Wilmington, New Bern and Morehead City, N.C. so can really feel for the people affected by the storm. Did you ever think that you could walk faster than a hurricane was moving? All that flood damage brings back bad memories of Super Storm Sandy and how if affected New Jersey.
About the only anglers that appreciate nasty conditions are the surf and jetty anglers. You probably recall that Al McReynolds caught his all-tackle world record striped bass a number of years ago while fishing in Atlantic City under just those same circumstances.
These rough water fans have a theory that says the strong winds blow the bait toward the beach and where there is bait there are predators, especially stripers. A number of bass have been caught in the past couple of weeks. Most have been shorts with a few marginal keepers and certainly nothing approaching the size of the McReynolds fish.
There is one very important reminder for you, especially
ACROSS THE BAY
If anything, the Delaware and Maryland areas probably got messed up a bit more than New Jersey by Florence. Prior to everything, anglers were having a field day catching blues all up and down the beaches and in Indian River Inlet. We have to wait and see if they still remain, although you have to assume the bait schools sought shelter in the inlets and rivers so that might keep the blues and the bass around.
A few hearty folks have been fishing the piers and they have been hooking into some croakers and spot. Of course, there is nothing to report from out in the ocean.