Tiger bounds up board

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Tiger Woods had been waiting for a day like this.

He was starting to sound like a broken record telling anyone who would listen that he was close to putting all facets of his game together. Finally, in Saturday’s third round of The Players Championship, he did it.

Woods — who made cut on the number at 1-under Friday, after two spotty rounds in which his short-iron play was loose and he made few putts of significance — shot a 7-under 65 to vault himself into a cusp of contention at 8-under.

He began the day 14 shots behind 36-hole leader Webb Simpson, but by the time he finished his third round, he was tied for eighth place and eight shots behind Simpson before the leaders were to tee off. Simpson, however, is running away with the tournament at 19-under par after shooting 68 Saturday and leads Woods by 11 shots.

“Eventually I was going to put all the pieces together and today for the most part I did that,’’ Woods said.

The 65 was the lowest round Woods has ever shot in his 66 career rounds at The Players. It, too, was Woods’ lowest round relative to par in an official PGA Tour event since his second round at the 2013 WGCBridgestone Invitational, which was his last victory and came 1,744 days ago.

“Well I finally got off to a good start,’’ Woods said, referring to birdies on the first two holes and on four of the first five en route to a front-nine 30.

As good as Woods’ round was, it could have been better considering he was 8-under through the first 12 holes. He missed a 14-foot birdie putt on the par-3 13th and he lipped out a 7-foot birdie putt on the par-5 16th hole.

The only blemish in his round came at No. 14, where he pushed his drive into the right rough to an awkward side-hill, downhill and failed to reach the green in two.

Jordan Spieth — who also narrowly made the cut at 1-under — shot 65 on Saturday to get to 8-under. It was Spieth’s lowest round at The Players in 13 career rounds.