FARMINGDALE (New York), June 16: Tiger Woods struggled to make an impression for much of the day but two late birdies gave him a four-stroke lead after the U.S. Open’s third round Saturday.

The world number one, three ahead overnight, picked up shots at the par-four 15th and the 207-yard 17th to card a level-par 70, finishing at five-under 205 after 54 holes.

Spaniard Sergio Garcia returned a 67 to lie second on 209 while Phil Mickelson also fired a 67 to tie for third place with fellow American Jeff Maggert on 210.

Ireland’s Padraig Harrington, just three behind Woods overnight, produced an up-and-down round of 73 to share fifth at 211, alongside Australia’s Robert Allenby, after a 67, and Billy Mayfair, a 68.

After Friday’s downpour, conditions were much easier Saturday but U.S. Masters champion Woods was unable to duplicate his impressive form of the previous two days.

He overran his chip shot six feet past the pin at the 451-yard fifth and was unable to make the putt to save his par. He later two-putted the par-four 11th after finding the greenside rough with his approach.

After the 26-year-old American dropped shots at the fifth and the 11th, his advantage closed to just two as Garcia and Mickelson birdied the 16th and 17th holes respectively.

But Woods hit his approach at the 459-yard 15th to within 12 feet of the flag for his elusive first birdie of the day and followed with a six-iron to eight feet at the par-three 17th to pull away from the chasing pack over the closing holes.

Mickelson, widely regarded as the best current player not to have won a major, bogeyed the last after pulling his tee shot into the left rough.

Six times major winner Nick Faldo fired a superb four-under-par 66, the best round of the week, to vault up the leaderboard to two-over 212.

Playing in his 16th U.S. Open on a special invitation, the 44-year-old Englishman birdied the short third and the par-four sixth to reach the turn in two-under-par 33.

Although he dropped two shots on the more difficult back nine, he kept his momentum going with further birdies at 11, 13, 15 and 17.

Further down the leaderboard, Zimbabwe’s Nick Price carded a 69 to finish at six-over 216, level with the American trio of Craig Stadler, Jay Haas and Scott Hoch who all returned 70s.

Earlier, Vijay Singh took advantage of the benign conditions at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course by firing a three-under-par 67.

The tall Fijian, playing in the day’s second group, mixed five birdies with two dropped shots to move to seven-over-par 217 after 54 holes.

Third round scores (U.S. unless stated, a-denotes amateur):

205 Tiger Woods 67 68 70

209 Sergio Garcia (Spain) 68 74 67

210 Phil Mickelson 70 73 67, Jeff Maggert 69 73 68

211 Robert Allenby (Australia) 74 70 67, Billy Mayfair 69 74 68, Padraig Harrington (Ireland) 70 68 73

212 Nick Faldo (Britain) 70 76 66, Justin Leonard 73 71 68

214 Tom Byrum 72 72 70, Scott McCarron 72 72 70, Davis Love III 71 71 72

215 Mark O’Meara 76 70 69, Charles Howell III 71 74 70, Dudley Hart 69 76 70, K.J. Choi (Korea) 69 73 73

216 Nick Price (Zimbabwe) 72 75 69, Craig Stadler 74 72 70, Jay Haas 73 73 70, Scott Hoch 71 75 70, Shigeki Maruyama (Japan) 76 67 73

217 Vijay Singh (Fiji) 75 75 67, Jesper Parnevik (Sweden) 72 76 69, Ernie Els (South Africa) 73 74 70

218 Frank Lickliter 74 76 68, Steve Stricker 72 77 69, Bernhard Langer (Germany) 72 76 70, Luke Donald (Britain) 76 72 70, Thomas Levet (France) 71 77 70, David Toms 74 74 70, Hidemichi Tanaka (Japan) 73 73 72, Jeff Sluman 73 73 72, Niclas Fasth (Sweden) 72 72 74, Rocco Mediate 72 72 74

219 Kevin Sutherland 74 75 70, Corey Pavin 74 75 70, Jason Caron 75 72 72, Tom Lehman 71 76 72, Robert Karlsson (Sweden) 71 76 72, Paul Lawrie (Britain) 73 73 73, Steve Flesch 72 72 75

220 Jim Carter 77 73 70, Chris DiMarco 74 74 72, Darren Clarke (Britain) 74 74 72, Peter Lonard (Australia) 73 74 73, Brad Lardon 73 73 74, Shingo Katayama (Japan) 74 72 74, Franklin Langham 70 76 74, Jean Van de Velde (France) 71 75 74

221 Kenny Perry 74 76 71, Donnie Hammond 73 77 71, Ian Leggatt (Canada) 72 77 72, John Maginnes 79 69 73

222 Tim Herron 75 74 73, Brad Faxon 75 74 73, Greg Norman (Australia) 75 73 74, Craig Bowden 71 77 74, Harrison Frazar 74 73 75

223 Bob Tway 72 78 73, Thomas Bjorn (Denmark) 71 79 73, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spain) 71 77 75, Len Mattiace 72 73 78

224 Kent Jones 76 74 74, Spike McRoy 75 75 74

225 Stuart Appleby (Australia) 77 73 75, Andy Miller 76 74 75, Jeev Milkha Singh (India) 75 75 75, Tom Gillis 71 76 78, Angel Cabrera (Argentina) 73 73 79

226 Paul Stankowski 72 77 77

231 John Daly 74 76 81

233 Kevin Warrick-a 73 76 84—Reuters