Sunday 28 January 2018 11:01, UK
Tiger Woods admitted he was "fighting and grinding" to post a score on day three of the Farmers Insurance Open after a series of wild tee shots.
Woods managed to hit only three of 14 fairways at Torrey Pines in a ball-striking day he described as "gross", but he did find consolation with his short game as he repeatedly bailed himself out with a sublime touch on and around the greens.
His score could have been several shots worse had he not holed a number of clutch putts for par, and he will look to fix his errant long-game before he heads out in the final round of an official PGA Tour event for the first time since August 2015.
Woods struggled off the tee from the outset, pulling his opening blow into the left rough at the 10th before going on to save par with a 12-foot putt, but he could not avoid a bogey at the short next hole after missing the green way left.
He managed a birdie at 12 after a superb second to eight feet from the right rough, and he rolled in another birdie putt from double that range on the long 13th before saving par again from 20 feet at 14.
His scrambling prowess shone again at 15 as he got up and down from sand, but he could not repeat the feat at the short 16th following another poor tee shot, and Woods allowed himself a wry smile when he finally hit his first fairway of the day at the 17th.
Woods drained another perfect putt on the 18th green to turn in 35, and he continued to scramble hard on the front nine as he put together a run of five pars before hammering a powerful second to the green at the long sixth - from the rough - and two-putted for birdie.
A delightful pitch from the rear rough at the eighth put another battling par on the card, although he missed a great chance to break 70 on his final hole when his birdie putt from six feet grazed the lip.
"It was gross," said Woods afterwards. "That's just fighting, fighting and grinding. I tried as hard as I could out there, I didn't have much but I fought hard to put up a score and I made some putts.
"My feels are a little off and that's something I'm going to have to get used to. It was a struggle out there. I didn't hit it worth a darn all day. I was really struggling out there trying to find anything that was resemblance of a golf swing. But I was scoring, I was chipping, putting, I was grinding.
"I was trying to miss the ball on the correct sides because I know I didn't have it, trying to give myself the correct angles and I did that most of the day. Then I had to rely on my touch, my feel, my putting and it's been good all week."
