Atlanta: Tiger Woods stood on the brink of his first PGA victory for more than five years after opening a three-shot lead over Justin Rose and Rory McIlroy in the third round of the Tour Championships here, Saturday.
Woods exuded a sense of calm as he contemplated his chances of what given his 42 years and surgical history would be perhaps his greatest triumph, at least outside of his 14 Major titles.
And he had every reason to fancy his chances given his history as a front-runner of the highest order. He has enjoyed the sole lead 44 times entering the final round, and has converted all but twice. And he has never coughed up a lead of three shots or more.
“Simple math says that if I play a clean card the guys behind me have to shoot 67, so that helps,” Woods told reporters after a five-under-par 65 at the East Lake course here.
“I don’t have to shoot 63 or 64 and hope I get help. That’s a big difference. This is a spot I’d much rather be in than four or five back. I feel good about it. I’ve been playing well throughout the entire summer, just piecing it together, building, building and building. Finally I’ve come to a point where I’ve got control of the lead.”
A victory Sunday would be his 80th on tour — two short of Sam Snead’s record — and his first since the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August, 2013.
It was a blistering start reminiscent of Wood’s halcyon days as he notched six birdies in the first seven holes after starting the day tied for the halfway lead with World No.1 Rose.
“I felt hot early for sure,” Woods said. “I was hitting it absolutely dead flush, the putts I was hitting were going in and from there I just tried to hang in there.”
He cooled off on the back nine en route to a three-day 12-under 198 total, while Englishman Rose recovered from a bogey, bogey start to card a 68.