WOODSTOCK (Georgia), Oct 5: Tiger Woods shot a one-under-par 69 in the third round of the WGC-American Express Championship on Saturday to maintain a two-shot lead going into the final 18 holes.
Woods started the round five clear of the field and despite ending the day on eight-under-par 202, is just a couple clear of Fiji’s Vijay Singh who shot a six-under 64.
Chasing the leaders are Tim Herron (67) on five-under 205 and South Korea’s K.J. Choi, who stands a further shot back on the Capital City Club’s Crabapple Course.
Seeking a PGA Tour-leading fifth win of the season, Woods began the day well on his way to winning his seventh WGC event and his second American Express Championship in a row.
The world number one birdied three of the first seven holes to reach 10-under-par before a pair of bogeys slowed down his charge.
At the par-four eighth, Woods three-putted for the first time in the tournament to drop a shot and at the par-four 11th, hit a 60-degree sand wedge right of the green and failed to get up and down for par.
With the bogey on the 11th hole, Woods gave back most of his gains from the front nine.
He then birdied the par-five 12th and the par-three 13th to move back to 10-under-par and open a four-shot lead.
However, a sand wedge would prove his undoing again, this time on the 16th.
After driving into the bunker off the tee and hitting out into the fairway, Woods was left with 131 yards to the green.
He hit his sand wedge short left and into the greenside bunker. Woods then needed three more shots and his lead was back down to a couple of shots.
The last 31 times he has either led or shared the 54-hole lead, he was won 29 times including the last 10.
Leading third round scores:
202 Tiger Woods 67 66 69
204 Vijay Singh (Fiji) 70 70 64
205 Tim Herron 66 72 67
206 K.J. Choi (South Korea) 67 71 68
208 Ignacio Garrido (Spain) 68 71 69, Stuart Appleby (Australia) 71 68 69
209 Retief Goosen (South Africa) 73 69 67
210 Paul Casey (Britain) 73 71 66, Sergio Garcia (Spain) 65 73 72
211 Jerry Kelly 70 72 69, Rocco Mediate 66 72 73
212 Brad Faxon 75 71 66, David Toms 73 72 67
213 Jim Furyk 70 74 69, Padraig Harrington (Ireland) 71 73 69, Peter O’Malley (Australia) 69 74 70
214 Eduardo Romero (Argentina) 72 74 68, Thomas Bjorn (Denmark) 74 73 67, Niclas Fasth (Sweden) 68 76 70, Loren Roberts 69 75 70, Kenny Perry 70 74 70, Fred Couples 71 73 70, Lee Westwood (Britain) 72 71 71, Mike Weir (Canada) 69 73 72
215 Ian Poulter (Britain) 73 74 68, Jonathan Kaye 73 69 73
216 Kirk Triplett 74 72 70, Fred Funk 73 74 69, Ernie Els (South Africa) 71 74 71, Toshi Izawa (Japan) 70 74 72, Brian Davis (Britain) 71 77 68, Charles Howell III 76 75 65
Huston LEADS
MADISON (Mississippi): John Huston shot a four-under-par third-round 68 to stay two shots ahead of the field at the Southern Farm Bureau Classic on Saturday.
Huston stands on 16-under 200 and leads Paul Stankowski (66), Chris Anderson (67) and Japan’s Hidemichi Tanaka (68), who are all a couple of strokes back at 14-under 202.
Leading third round scores:
200 John Huston 66 66 68
202 Paul Stankowski 68 68 66, Chris Anderson 69 66 67, Hidemichi Tanaka (Japan) 66 68 68
203 Luke Donald (Britain) 69 67 67 204
Shigeki Maruyama (Japan) 68 68 68, Tim Clark (South Africa) 69 66 69
206 John Morgan (Britain) 73 65 68, Kent Jones 68 70 68, Jim McGovern 68 69 69, David Frost (South Africa) 68 69 69. — Reuters