Saturday 66 keeps Tiger within striking distance
Still smarting from Friday’s rough start, Tiger Woods dug deep Saturday and played his way back into contention in the BMW Championship at sunny Conway Farms Golf Club near Chicago. He fired a 5-under-par 66 and has a 54-hole score of 9-under 204, four shots behind leader Jim Furyk in the third of four FedExCup Playoffs events.
On Friday, Woods made a quadruple-bogey 8 on the par-4 first hole after being assessed a two-stroke penalty following his round, when tournament officials determined his ball moved prior to his third shot when he pushed aside a twig. As a result, he finished with a 72 and dropped to 13th place, seven strokes off the lead.
“That was tough,” Woods said Saturday after his seven-birdie, two-bogey round. “I fought back today, which was not easy to do. I got myself within striking distance.”
Asked about his rules infraction on Friday, Tiger said, “From my vantage point, I thought it just oscillated and that was it.”
Admittedly, Woods was upset Friday night.
“There were a lot of thoughts going on,” he said. “But the sun comes up in the east, and we start a new day.”
Paired with Sergio Garcia, Tiger started Saturday’s round with four consecutive pars. He missed the green with his approach shot at the par-4 fifth and hit a poor chip, then two-putted for a bogey from about 15 feet.
Woods followed with three straight birdies. He holed a 30-foot putt at the par-3 sixth, drove the green at the par-4 seventh and chipped to three feet, then got up and down from a greenside bunker at the par-5 eighth and sunk an eight-foot putt.
After a nice drive at the short par-4 ninth, Tiger flew the green with his approach shot and did well to save par, making the turn in 2-under 33.
Woods began the back nine with another run, carding three consecutive birdies. He knocked his approach shot at the par-4 10th from 142 yards within six inches of the cup. At the 167-yard, par-3 11th, he flagged his tee shot six feet from the hole and buried the putt. Tiger nearly holed out another approach shot at the 419-yard, par-4 12th and converted again for his sixth birdie in seven holes.
After a two-putt par at No. 13, he squandered a good birdie chance at the 564-yard, par-5 14th. He pulled his second shot left into the gallery and hit a woman, but got a favorable bounce into a chipping area left of the green. Woods gave her a glove, then knocked his uphill chip about six feet past the hole and burned the left edge of the cup with his birdie attempt.
At the drivable, 305-yard, par-4 15th, Tiger was caught between clubs and elected to hit a 3-iron off the tee instead of a 5-wood. He pulled the shot left into a pond, sustained a one-stroke penalty and bogeyed the hole.
Woods made a nice two-putt par from the fringe at the par-4 16th hole, draining a six-footer coming back. At the downhill, 210-yard, par-3 17th, he hit a 6-iron that took a big hop in front of the green and rolled over the back of the putting surface into a fluffy lie. Tiger left his testy chip six feet short of the cup and poured in the par putt.
After a good drive at the 549-yard, par-5 18th, Woods went for the green in two and pulled his second shot pin-high left into a greenside bunker. With little green to work with, he splashed his third shot 12 feet past the cup and coaxed in the birdie putt to shoot a 3-under 33 on the side.
“I had a nice little run to at least get myself in there with a chance tomorrow,” said Woods, who leads the 70-player field with 20 birdies.
Following final-round play in the BMW, the top 30 players on the FedExCup points list advance to the final playoff event next week at East Lake Golf Course in Atlanta, where the overall winner earns a $10 million bonus. Tiger is currently second on the list, 14 points behind Henrik Stenson.
On Sunday, Woods tees off at 12:20 p.m. local time (1:20 p.m. ET) with Charl Schwartzel. The forecast calls for a 90 percent chance of rain.
