Tiger Woods continued his domination at the TPC Blue Monster in the World Golf Championships (WGC) Cadillac Championship, surging to a four-shot lead after Saturday’s third round.
Woods shot a five-under-par 67 to move to 18-under for the tournament, four clear of Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell (69) who is second on 14-under and five ahead of fellow Americans Phil Mickelson (69) and Steve Stricker (69) at 13-under in a tie for third.
Woods appears set to tally up an unprecedented 17th WGC win, a seventh Cadillac Championship and a 76th US PGA tour victory as he looks to chase down Sam Snead’s record 82 wins.
John Senden was the best of the Australians in a tie for 13th but a distant 10 shots off the pace.
Woods started with a two-shot lead and signalled his intentions right out of the gates with birdies on his opening three holes, although McDowell stuck with him with an eagle and birdie of his own.
When Woods bogeyed the fifth and McDowell birdied the sixth, the pair were tied and the procession was on hold.
But Woods wrestled back the advantage with birdies on the par-5 eighth and 10th holes to be two clear again, before McDowell dropped one on 11 to be three back.
Woods added another birdie at the 15th and, while McDowell eagled the par-4 16th with a chip in, a double bogey at 14 had stalled his challenge.
The 14-time major champion gave the chasing pack a glimmer of hope with bogey on 17 after his tee shot became stuck in a palm tree but nailed a 16-foot birdie on the last to set up his huge buffer.
Senden, who started seven back, opened with two birdies in his first three holes as he attempted a big surge but a three-putt bogey on the fourth stunted his momentum.
Further birdies at eight and 10 righted the ship but, once again, an untimely dropped shot on 11 kept the Queenslander hovering on the periphery of the top 10.
Another bogey on 15 was countered with a birdie on 16 to leave him nine off the pace.
“The whole momentum of my round changed with bogey on 12, which was a bit of a bummer,” Senden said. “I had a nice front nine but felt like a different player on the back nine.”
Adam Scott carded a 68 to move to six-under for the week in a tie for 19th, well off the pace but gaining confidence each day after minor adjustments to his game in recent weeks.
Jason Day (75) couldn’t back up his hot second round to drop back to one-under.
Australia’s Masters hopefuls Geoff Ogilvy (73) and Marcus Fraser (77) put themselves under pressure in their bid for much-needed world-ranking points as they try to be inside the world top 50 by April 1.
The top 57 place-getters this week are awarded a descending amount of points with Ogilvy now tied 41st and Fraser 62nd with a round to play.
Ogilvy started the week at 47th in the world and Fraser 56th, but current standings would have them fall backwards.
