Tiger Woods looks for 80th PGA TOUR win at TOUR Championship

Tiger Woods moved one step closer to his first win in five years, extending his lead in the third round of the TOUR Championship. With the FedEx Cup still hanging in the balance, he might be all but unstoppable.

Thousands of fans braved the 90-degree heat at East Lake Golf Club to watch what they have been waiting for since 2013: Tiger Woods in full flight. Tiger Woods dominating a golf course. Tiger Woods stretching a lead to make it nearly impossible for the competition to have any chance at catching him.

They got what they came to see and then some, particularly in the first two hours of his third round at the Tour Championship.

The tournament officially entered “Oh, My God!” territory after Woods birdied six of the first seven holes. It was like the last five years hadn’t happened. Like we were transported back to 2013 or even 2008 as Woods hit quality shot after quality shot and proceeded to make the kind of putts he missed for the first eight months of 2018.

After the round, speaking to media, Woods agreed about his early play.

“Yeah, I got off to a nice start there. I made some nice putts. Good Lord,” he quipped.

By the time Woods got to the ninth, it looked like he might be sub-30 for the first half of the round but a double-crossed tee shot ruined that. He made bogey and finished right on the number instead.

Even with the error, Woods was four ahead of his nearest competitor, Justin Rose, and five ahead of McIlroy at the turn. The lead would shrink to three over the final nine holes. Though they are behind, Rose and McIlroy have not given up.

The Woods of old would never have looked back at this point. But since we are now dealing with an older Woods instead, it is difficult to determine what will happen next.

"“It’s a little more unknown now,” Rose noted. “Obviously his history, his statistics from this point are impeccable. They’re incredible. But he’s human, and there’s a lot on it for him tomorrow, as well as the rest of us. It’ll be a fun day for everybody to watch and to be a part of.”"

“This has turned into beyond description,” NBC’s Dan Hicks said as the afternoon wore on.

Woods seemed confident, but not overly so.

"“It feels great to have worked my way into this spot,” Woods said to media after his round. “My game plan throughout the week has been very conservative. Make sure I dump the ball 30, 40 feet from the hole and trust my lag putting and get it down there and maybe I might make one or two here and there and make sure I string together a bunch of pars. And occasionally I’ll get hot for a couple holes and try and take advantage of it.”"

From his standpoint, going from chaser to leader was not difficult mentally, even though he had basically a five-year layoff.

“Things that didn’t really feel abnormal, even though it’s been years, literally years, since I’ve been in those spots, but I think I’ve been in those spots enough times that muscle memory – I guess I remembered it, and I felt comfortable,” Wood said. And he looked relaxed and like he meant it.

“I wonder if he can finish it off, which he hasn’t always done this year,” Johnny Miller said on the NBC broadcast.

The round wasn’t half over when he said it, yet you had to wonder, was Miller onto something or was he just remembering how hard it was to win after several winless years? Miller won the 1994 AT&T Pebble Beach after a seven-year drought. If anybody knows the degree of difficulty from a competition standpoint, Miller does.

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As far as the final round, Woods will play with McIlroy, and Rose will play with Kyle Stanley who shot 67 to end at 6-under.

Woods definitely has the advantage.

“Simple math says that if I play a clean card, the guys behind me have to shoot 67 to force it into extra. That helps,” Woods noted. “I don’t have to shoot 63 or 64 and hope I get help. That’s a big difference.”

Justin Rose, however, is trying for two things: The Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup. He knows he needs to beat Woods to get the first goal, but he might not have to for the second.

“Obviously he’s going to be tough to beat tomorrow,” Rose said about Woods. “The guy, although he hasn’t won for a long time, I’m sure it’s going to be hard for him tomorrow.”

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Rose is not losing sight of the FedEx Cup, which he can still win even if he doesn’t win the tournament.

"“The way I look at tomorrow is that I have many scenarios in play,” he added. “My objective tomorrow is to come out and play good, positive golf and try and chase down the leader and win this golf tournament. I think in some ways that’ll help my other task of trying to win the FedEx Cup. It’ll keep me on the front foot and playing positive golf.”"

One way or the other, golf fans will be tuned into watch this one. If Woods wins, it would be his 80^th title. He would tie Sam Snead in total PGA Tour victories. It would also officially start the countdown to the 15^th major.

In case you’re counting: the Masters begins on April 11, 2019. That’s exactly 200 days from this Sunday. 200 days that could get a lot more interesting based on the events that go down on Sunday afternoon at East Lake.

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