Woods takes lead into final round at Byron
Nelson
By RON SIRAK / AP Golf Writer
IRVING, Texas (AP) - Good is never good enough for Tiger Woods.
The Masters champion did the only sensible thing - for him
- after shooting a 67 on Saturday for a two-stroke lead at 15-under-par
195 going to the final round of the GTE Byron Nelson Classic.
He went to practice.
"I'm going to have to play better tomorrow," Woods
said after an erratic six-birdie, three-bogey round on the TPC
course at the Four Seasons resort. Then he was off to hit balls.
"A lot of guys can win this," he said after finishing
three rounds with a two-stroke lead over Dave Berganio, Mike Standly,
Jim Furyk, Lee Rinker and Dan Forsman and with another seven players
lurking three strokes behind.
"If one guy gets hot with the flat stick they can shoot
61, 62, 63," he said, referring to what a hot putter can
do on the relatively simply TPC layout.
The putter has been the most reliable club for Woods all week.
For the second day in a row he needed only 26 putts - and that
despite one three-putt green.
"My chipping and my putting has saved me," said Woods,
who had several examples of his surreal touch around the greens,
including a delicate bump-and-run to 18 inches on the 16th hole
for a birdie.
But Woods, who opened the tournament with consecutive rounds
of 64, was not able to distance himself from the field as he did
in his record 12-stroke victory at the Masters, where he was nine
ahead going to Sunday.
And the slew of players within striking distance seemed to
relish the chance of taking on golf's golden guy in the final
round.
"Looks like an exciting finish for you all tomorrow,"
Furyk said following a 67 in which he birdied the last two holes.
"A bunch of guys are bunched up."
A record crowd estimated at 80,000 by Four Seasons club manager
Mark Herron flooded the course on Saturday, all but swallowing
up the layout.
"The first fairway was lined pretty good," Furyk
said. "It didn't look like there was a fairway out there."
The two guys among the challengers with the most impressive
efforts in the third round were Standly and Rinker, both of whom
played with Woods and had to deal with the massive gallery that
at times was still buzzing about a Woods' shot while the other
two were trying to hit.
"You try to make it just another round," Standly,
who shot a 68, said about playing with Woods. "But you don't
want to look bad in front of all those people."
Rinker, who shot a 69, had the lead until he made a bogey on
No. 16 while Woods made a birdie after a 340-yard drive for a
two-stroke swing.
"I just had a brain cramp there," Rinker said about
a 112-yard wedge shot he left 20 yards short. "I should have
hit a 9-iron."
Woods started the day with four consecutive pars then looked
like he might make a runaway of the tournament when he closed
the front nine with three consecutive birdies for a 32.
On each of the three birdies his iron shots got more accurate
as he hit the ball to 10, then 8, then 6 feet from the hole.
Then just as suddenly he seemed to wilt in the steamy Texas
heat that neared 90 degrees. He made a bogey on No. 11 when he
drove into a bunker and three-putted the next hole for another
bogey.
While waiting to hit on the 14th tee, where there was a backup,
Woods stayed in the cool shade of a tunnel trying to escape the
sun.
"Man it's hot," he said. "I need an air conditioner."
Maybe the respite in the shade helped. He finished with two
birdies in the last three holes, the final one coming on a wedge
from the deep right rough on No. 18 to 5 feet from the cup.
"That was my best shot of the day," Woods said.
Then it was off to the practice range for Woods.
"There are certain faults that stay with you all your
life," Woods said. "And you just have to keep working
on them."
Then after an evening of tinkering it will be the final round
of the Byron Nelson as Woods tries for his second consecutive
victory, third of the year and fifth in just 16 tournaments as
a pro.
DIVOTS: Since shooting 40 on the first nine holes at the Masters,
Woods has played his last 117 holes 37 under par. ... The $320,000
first-place check would put Woods over $2 million in career earnings.
The record for the most money won in the first two years on tour
is $1,858,515 by David Duval. ... Woods needs a 67 on Sunday to
break the tournament record of 17-under-par by Ernie Els in 1995.
If Woods shoots a 63 he would match the lowest 72-hole score ever
on a par-70 course. ... Describing a wind-blown shot that ended
up short, Woods said: "It just happened to catch one of those
gusts and when that happens you get Mutomboed," referring
to Dikembo Mutombo, the shot-blocking center of the NBA's Atlanta
Hawks.
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