Tiger Woods Finds Mid-Round Rhythm at Pebble Beach
Tiger Woods needed to be good today in the third round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. He was exactly that, and for eight holes, Tiger Woods was REALLY good. He birdied five of his final six holes as he made the turn and birdied the second hole on the front nine (his back) giving him six birdies in an eight-hole stretch.
It was a helluva way to rebound from a bogey at No. 12.
It was a helluva way to rebound from a disappointing day Friday, where Tiger’s putter kept him off the first page of the leaderboard. On Saturday, Woods didn’t just find the first page, he found his putting stroke. And that would be Tiger’s saving grace on a day where Tiger didn’t drive the ball well at all.
Woods only hit 7-of-14 fairways on the day after hitting 86 percent of his fairways through the first two days of the tournament, but just like in the old days, Tiger’s trusty flat-blade was there to bail him out. Tiger needed just 27 putts to finish his third round en route to a five-under 67 at Pebble Beach. It was an obvious statistical improvement over the 33-putt round Tiger had on Friday, but there was something else to it.
On several occasions, Tiger found himself in that dangerous 8-15 foot range desperately needing a putt to fall, and on Saturday it seemed like most did. And as I wrote yesterday, he seemed to find the mental wherewithal he needed to will the ball into the cup on multiple occasions.
There was no reluctance on the ball’s behalf. It knew where it needed to go, and by god it went.
And the crazy thing is, it could have still been better. Tiger only parred his last eight holes, and he missed a couple of opportunities to capitalize on easy pro-am pin locations they won’t see on Sunday. On the fourth hole, Tiger was 118 yards from the stick in the fairway and he failed to find the green. On the short Par 5 sixth, Woods hit a sub-par pitch on his third shot and failed to convert his birdie.
He continued to find a way to make it work, because he rolled the rock with a conviction that he hadn’t the previous two days. Thursday and Friday, Tiger worked the golf course. Saturday Tiger worked the greens. Imagine what happens if he finds a way to work them both.
Woods now sits at 11-under for the tournament and in sole-possession of third place. However, he’ll have his work cut out for him if he hopes to make up the four-shot deficit between himself an leader Charlie Wi, who is in the Top Five for the week in both driving accuracy and putts-per-round.
That being said, if Woods can mash Friday’s game with Saturday’s game he’ll be tough to stop both tomorrow and for the foreseeable future, and while it’s too early to say whether or not Woods has found the IT he’s been looking for, he’s definitely found something. Sunday just might show us what exactly IT is.
