Tiger Woods finished atop the leaderboard at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Saturday, leaving him one round away from winning on the US PGA Tour for the first time in 30 months.
If anything, Saturday showed that it won’t be easy for Woods.
In two holes, he went from a four-shot lead to briefly tied with Graeme McDowell after a bizarre chain of events that featured a young man passing out and a woman screaming, all in the middle of Woods’ swing on the 15th tee.
But he followed the double bogey with a birdie from a fairway bunker on the par-5 16th to restore his lead and then hung on for a one-under 71 that gave him a one-shot lead over McDowell going into the final round.
McDowell didn’t make a birdie until the 17th hole, but he was bogey-free on a tough day for a 71.
Woods has a 37-2 record when he has the outright lead going into the final round and Sunday will show if he has regained his status as the most formidable closer in golf.
Woods, who was at 11-under 205, last won on the tour in September 2009 at the BMW Championship. That also was the last time he had the outright lead at a tour event after 54 holes.
He has never had a better chance to end the drought than now – in the lead and on a course where he has won a record six times.
“I enjoy it,” Woods said of his place atop the leaderboard. “It means I’ve played well to get there. It’s not like I’m slashing it all over the place and happened to be at 11-under par. If you’re in the lead, you’ve done some good things. That’s how I’ve always looked at it and it’s a nice position to be in.”
Woods has such control of his golf ball that he went 38 consecutive holes with a putter in his hand for a birdie attempt.
The last time Woods and McDowell played in the final group of any tournament, McDowell rallied from four shots behind and beat Woods in a playoff in the Chevron World Challenge at the end of 2010.
“The golf course is going to be the main competitor tomorrow,” McDowell said.
Indeed, it might not be just them.
Ernie Els rekindled his hopes of getting into the Masters with six birdies in a round of 67 that left him only three shots behind. Ian Poulter had a 68 and also was tied for third, while Charles Howell III (68) and Sony Open winner Johnson Wagner (69) were four behind.
Els at No.62 in the world and needs to crack the top 50 after Sunday to get an invitation to Augusta. He could get there by finishing alone in third place – provided Matteo Manassero doesn’t win in Morocco on the European Tour or Howell doesn’t finish alone in second place at Bay Hill.
On the 15th tee, Woods was in the middle of his swing when an 18-year-old passed out, and a woman screamed when she saw it. Woods couldn’t stop his swing, and his tee shot hooked so far left out of bounds that it was closer to a swimming pool in someone’s backyard than the white boundary stakes of the golf course.
Woods made double bogey, and McDowell caught him atop the leaderboard with his first birdie of the round on the 17th. It didn’t last long. From a fairway bunker on the 16th, Woods ripped it over the water to about 20 feet for a two-putt birdie.
He got up-and-down from the bunker on the 17th and two-putted for par on the 18th.
