Tiger Fires 66, Talks About Getting His Game Back

Tiger Woods' third round of 66 in the US Open at Pebble Beach has him in position to win his fifteenth major championship.  Woods began his round poorly, playing poorly on the opening seven holes - considered the easiest stretch of holes on the golf course.  He made bogey on two after a poor drive.  After a 370 yard drive at the downhill par 4 third, Woods was left without an angle and made bogey.

Woods' round began to turn around with a birdie at the par 4 fourth whose tees were moved up for the third round to entice players to go for the green.  It led to a run of birdies on four, five, and six that got Woods into red figures for the round.

After a bogey on eight, Woods went out in even and further from the lead than when he started.

It was on the back nine that Woods made his move.  An unlikely birdie on 11 against a tough pin resumed his momentum.  A birdie at the susceptible 13th got him closer. 

The final stretch of holes, though, were what made Woods a contender for his fourth Open title.  After a birdie on the short downhill sixteenth, Woods hit his tee shot on the iconic and devilish seventeenth to about fourteen feet above the hole.

Woods said of the putt that he was simply trying to leave himself without a difficult second putt. 

"I told myself to not mess up the momentum, the great round that I had going," Woods said.

He didn't.  He curled in a putt with six feet of break to get back to even par.  It was evident from his stride to eighteen that he would challenge the par 5 finisher in two.  After a tee shot that left him near a tree that could scuttle those efforts, Woods said he arrived at his ball happy.

"I thought I had a shot at it, and I was hoping Stevie would give me a good number.  When he said 260, he did."

Woods went for it, curling his ball onto the green within twenty feet of the hole.  Tiger said he psyched himself out of making the eagle that would have been deafening to the competition behind him.  Nonetheless, Woods is clearly happy that his game is back.

"In all of the Opens that I've won, I've had a stretch of nine holes - not just front or back nine, but nine holes - where I made my move," Woods said. 

He will have to duplicate the feat, but play 18 solid holes tomorrow to steal the US Open, his fifteenth major, and his first in which he did not have a share of the Saturday night lead.