Tiger’s Saturday charge stalls on back nine

Tiger Woods started strong, but couldn’t sustain his good play on the back nine Saturday in the third round of the Honda Classic at the Champion Course at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Woods birdied two of the first three holes and toured the front nine in 3-under-par 32. But he struggled on the back side, making double-bogey at the par-3 17th.

As a result, Tiger recorded his third-straight even-par 70 and has a 54-hole score of 210, eight strokes behind co-leaders Luke Guthrie and Michael Thompson.

“I thought realistically 5 or 6-under par would be a good score,” Woods said afterward. “I thought if I post that I would be within six or seven shots of the lead going into tomorrow at the worst.”

As it turned out, a 65 or 66 would have lifted him into title contention. Now, he’ll need to shoot a low number on Sunday and hope the leaders stumble. Last year, Tiger closed with a 62 and tied for second.

“It’s not that far off,” said Woods of his game.

An early starter with David Lynn, Tiger knocked a wedge five feet from the cup at the 365-yard, par-4 first hole and opened with a birdie. Playing in cool, cloudy conditions, Woods parred the second hole, then birdied the 538-yard, par-5 third, where he reached the green in two from 229 yards and two-putted from 46 feet.

Tiger made a nice up-and-down from the front-right bunker at the par-4 fourth, holing an eight-foot putt, then missed a 13-foot birdie attempt at the par-3 fifth. He made another nice save at the par-4 sixth, where he got up-and-down from 27 yards short of the green and sunk a nine-foot putt.

Now in scramble mode, Woods drove into the left bunker at the par-3 seventh, but saved par again, blasting to three feet. He holed his third shot from 31 feet at the par-4 eighth for a birdie, then made another clutch par-save at the par-4 ninth, where his second shot found the left bunker. Tiger’s sand shot stopped three feet from the pin and he made the putt to shoot 32, using only 12 putts.

At the difficult par-4 10th hole, Woods’ drive caught mud and his approach shot landed in the left greenside bunker. He exploded to eight feet, but this time was unable rescue par.

Tiger followed with six-consecutive pars, making another nice par-save at the par-4 13th hole, where he holed an eight-foot putt. Woods hit a nice approach to 15 feet at the par-4 16th, but couldn’t convert his birdie bid.

He got unlucky at the 17th hole, where his tee shot appeared to carry the fronting water hazard but the ball was never found, apparently plugging in the bank. As a result, his ball was deemed lost and he had to walk back to the tee and hit again. Woods hit his third shot 22 feet from the cup and two-putted for a 5.

“We didn’t know if the ball was in the hazard or not,” he said.

Tiger saved par at the par-5 18th hole to finish the side in 3-over 38.

“My iron game is pretty good and my short game is way better than it was at Torrey (Pines),” said Woods, alluding to his earlier win in his 2013 PGA Tour debut. “I feel very comfortable with my putting. I need to obviously get it in play a little more and attack from there, because everything else is pretty good.”

On Sunday, Woods tees off at 11:05 a.m. ET with Robert Streb.