Tiger Woods is appearing back to form and he showed exactly why on Saturday, as he surged ahead of the pack after being back four shots to take a two stroke lead heading into the final round on Sunday in the Arnold Palmer Invitational tournament in Florida at the Bay Hill Club.
Woods is the defending champion at the tournament and there is a lot at stake for the golfer, as he could regain the number one ranking from Rory McIlroy after losing it in 2010 following his sex scandal and break from golf. It has been a long road for Woods, but he is finally showing the dominance he had before the incident, winning two events prior to the Masters for the first time since 2005 and he could add a third before that goes on.
Woods shot a 6-under-66 to overtake Bill Haas and Justin Rose, who struggled on Saturday after being up by six strokes on Woods, finishing with a 72 after hitting a 39 on the final nine holes of his round. Woods was able to take over after an eagle on the 16th hole, which was much better than he did on Friday when he knocked his ball into the water and had to bring it back to the tee.
He had trouble on the final two holes on Friday, but on Saturday he was efficient and made both pars to take a two stroke lead into the final day Sunday. In his career, Woods has been able to take home 51 wins in the 55 times he has taken a lead on the PGA Tour into Sunday, something he did just two weeks ago when he won his 17th WGC event at the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral.
Woods was back four shots from Rose and Haas when he started the day, but after having some fantastic tee shots and 25 putts, he found himself at the top of the leaderboard.
"Just because I've won here doesn't ensure that I'm going to win the tournament," Woods said. "The conditions are different. The game might be different, but the objective is still to put myself in position to win the golf tournament and somehow get it done on Sunday. Over the course of my career I've done a pretty decent job of that."
Rose fell behind after building a three-stroke lead and finished with three bogeys in the back nine.
