Tiger tied for third heading into final round
Tiger Woods wasn’t sharp, but he managed to shoot a 4-under-par 68 thanks to a hot putter Saturday in the third round of the Turkish Airlines Open at The Montgomerie Maxx Royal in Antalya, Turkey. He is tied for third at 15-under 201, six strokes behind leader Victor Dubuisson of France.
After firing a 63 in the second round, Woods hit only five of 14 fairways, but stayed in contention by using 24 putts. He also toured the five par-5s in 4-under.
“It’s always hard to follow up a low round with another one, but I somehow managed to post 4-under,” Woods said.
Tiger had a scare on the par-5 11th hole. After an errant drive, he tried to punch a 3-wood through an opening and hit a tree with his follow-through, hurting his right arm. Woods grimaced in pain and shook his hand, but refused treatment afterward.
“My arm is a little tender,” he said. “I smoked it on something. I don’t know what I hit, but I hit something hard. I just dealt with it and just played through it.”
After recording nine birdies and no bogeys in the second round, Tiger made seven birdies and three bogeys in the third.
“Yesterday I was dialed in,” Woods said. “I know what I’m doing wrong, it’s just a matter of stop doing it, and I’ll hit good shots like I did yesterday.”
Paired with Henrik Stenson and Richard Sterne, Tiger started strong with birdies at the par-5 first, par-4 third and par-3 eighth, and made the turn in 3-under 32.
The back nine was a roller-coaster. After a birdie at the par-5 11th, where he got up and down from a greenside bunker, Woods bogeyed the par-4 12th. He rebounded quickly with a birdie at the par-5 13th, then added another at the par-3 14th.
But Tiger bogeyed the par-4 15th and par-3 16th holes. He finished strong with a birdie at the par-5 18th, holing a lengthy left-to-right putt.
“It was a nice way to end, considering I struggled all day with my swing,” Woods said. “I was getting away with it on the front nine, but I wasn’t really playing well and it caught up with me on the back nine.”
Tiger shoots for his sixth victory of the year Sunday. He’ll start in the second-to-last threesome with Stenson and Alejandro Canizares at 10:05 a.m. local time/3:05 a.m. ET.
