Saturday 24 February 2018 23:59, UK
Tiger Woods refused to be downcast at missing a series of chances to get closer to the leaders at the Honda Classic after he carded a one-under 69 on day three.
Woods was satisfied with his long game overall but conceded the slick greens at PGA National remained the toughest challenge, and he is now hoping to put pressure on the final groups with a Sunday charge up the leaderboard.
The 42-year-old began his third round with three steady pars before a neat up-and-down at the fourth avoided a blemish, and his continued his par run until breaking it with a composed six-foot putt for birdie at the eighth.
Woods missed decent chances to improve his score on each of the next three greens, and he looked certain to drop a shot at the 12th when he bunkered his drive and could only splash his ball out 50 yards up the fairway.
But he knocked his third to 15 feet and rolled in the putt to stay one under for the day, and he nailed another from similar range at the next - this time for birdie - before he again encountered problems over the Bear Trap.
Wayward tee shots to the 15th and 17th both resulted in bogeys, although he finished on a high as he pitched to within two feet at the long 18th and tapped in for a closing birdie to get back to level par for the tournament.
"That was the highest score I could possibly have shot today," Woods said afterwards. "I really hit it good and I had nice control of it today. If I could have just made a few more putts on the front nine, I could have got the round started, but I got the round started with a par putt on 12.
"Overall, I feel very pleased to shoot something in the red and give myself a chance going into tomorrow, but I just didn't get anything to go in there for most of the early part of the round.
"I can't be that annoyed because I played really well. I hit good putts, I just didn't get anything going on that front nine but I was hanging in there, I was grinding. I made one nice up-and-down at four from over the green, but I was just kind of hanging in there and eventually it finally turned at 12 and 13.
"The greens were smoother today but still slick. You had to be careful putting the putter down because it will slip on the green. If you get a gust from behind us, it could nudge that ball. So we've got to be careful out there, the wind is gusty, it's blowing and these greens are very slippery.
"I probably miss-read about half of them, but it's tricky out there. But the key was I gave myself a lot of looks and eventually they ended up going in."
Asked what he needed in the final round to have a chance of winning for the first time since 2013, he added: "I'm going to have to do something under par for sure. You never know what can happen the last few holes here. A lot of things can happen and have happened in the past.
"First of all, I need to go and post a number. I'm going to be far enough ahead of the leaders, probably 45 minutes or an hour, so if I can go ahead and post a number early, almost reminiscent so what I did with Rory in 2012, you never know, and wait and see what happens."
