Woods settles for 61 after bid for 59 fails

here and so it is good to see the younger guys step up to this event,” he said. “It is one traditionally we have always come outside the medals in and our target is Rio in 2016 and really it is better to sacrifice now than in three years time.”

Britain’s athletes are funded by UK Sport as the nation’s high performance sports agency responsible for the strategic investment of £355million of national Lottery and exchequer funding in Olympic and Paralympic sports preparing for Rio 2016. The ambition is to win more medals than in London 2012 while building a stronger more sustainable high performance system. www.uksport.gov.uk TIGeR Woods came up short in his bid for a magical 59, but still opened up a commanding lead in his quest for an eighth WGC Bridgestone Invitational title.

nine under par after 13 holes of the par-70 Firestone Country Club, Woods needed to play the last five holes in two under to record only the sixth 59 in PGA Tour history.

however, after scrambling a par on the 14th, a good chance for birdie from nine feet went begging on the 15th and the world no 1’s chance to break the 60 barrier effectively disappeared when he missed from six feet on the 17th.

A wild drive on the 18th looked set to lead to a disappointing closing bogey, but Woods holed from 25 feet for par to card a 61, equalling the lowest round of his career and setting him up for a 79th PGA Tour title, three behind Sam Snead’s all-time record of 82.

At 13 under par Woods held a seven-shot lead over defending champion Keegan Bradley and england’s Chris Wood, who were both round in 68, with Open runner-up henrik Stenson and American Bill haas another stroke back.

Asked about shooting 59, Woods added: “I certainly could have done it. I had it going after a nice start.”

Woods was certainly right about the start he made to his round yesterday. Two shots off the pace after an opening 66, he holed from three feet for a birdie at the first, 20 feet for eagle at the second and 12 feet for birdie at the third to vault into the lead.

“Four under through three is always nice,” he added. “I then made a couple of key putts for par and built the round from there.”