Tiger Woods playing cards 71 in third spherical of Hero World Challenge

Tiger Woods stumbled out of the gate earlier than discovering his footing with 4 of his 5 birdies on the entrance 9 to complete 1-under-par 71 after the third spherical of the Hero World Challenge on Saturday.

He’s tied for sixteenth within the 20-man subject at even par.

Woods mentioned the “touch and feels” of his brief sport are probably the most tough to get again up to now.

“But when you’re chipping off Bermuda like this, and this is probably one of the hardest golf courses we face all year round to try and hit chips, ball sits down, you’ve got to hit the ball up,” Woods mentioned. “As far as my feels, generally as the week progresses my feel for pin high gets better and better each and every day. I think that’s an indication this week, I know the score doesn’t indicate what I think I could have shot today, but it was definitely clearer than it was yesterday.”

Woods mentioned his foot wasn’t bothering him however “other parts are,” with out elaborating.

After opening with a 75 and a 70 on the Albany course within the Bahamas, Woods bogeyed the primary two holes on Saturday earlier than turning his fortunes round on the third gap. He birdied that gap in addition to Nos. 6, 8 and 9.

Woods answered a bogey on No. 11 with a birdie on No. 14. He bogeyed the par-4 No. 18 to drop to even par for the event.

The 15-time main champion is the event host and a five-time winner of the occasion, most just lately in 2011.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, the second-round chief, shot 65 on Saturday and owns a three-stroke benefit at 16 underneath heading into Sunday’s ultimate spherical. Matt Fitzpatrick of Great Britain additionally shot 65 to leap into solo second at 13 underneath. Justin Thomas (68) is third, 5 strokes off the lead.

Woods is taking part in in his first event since withdrawing from the Masters in April. He’s utilizing this week as a “beta test” to see what he must do to have the ability to compete over 72 holes throughout 4 days.

“I’m very excited at how I have felt physically,” Woods mentioned. “Knocking off some rust. I mean, we can always knock off rust at home, but it’s so different come game time. Game time speed is different than at-home speed. To be able to knock off some of the rust as I have this week and showed myself that I can recover each and every day, that was kind of an unknown as far as I’ve walked this far. I’ve done all my training, but add in playing and concentration and adrenaline and all those other factors that speed up everything, I’m very excited how the week’s turned out.”