Tiger Woods had his claws clipped when he uncharacteristically bogeyed his closing three holes on day two of the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando.

Woods was just one shot from the lead when he found a fairway bunker at the 16th.

However the 14-time Major champion then lashed out at the bunker when he shot fell short into a stream guarding the green.

Woods, who is looking also to end an 871-day absence as World No. 1, then played a wild tee shot missing the green left at 17 for a second straight bogey and then dropped a further shot at the last in a score of 70 for a six under par tally.

Tiger Woods bogeys closing three holes on day two of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

“Well, now I’m four back after being one behind at one point,” said Woods.

“It’s just the way it goes.  Sixteen was unfortunate and at 17 I made a bad swing while at 18 I also made a bad swing. So all three holes I hit beautiful putts and I thought I made, but they’re not realistic putts.  They’re outside that range, so I need to do a better job like I did most of the day getting in the stiff and making those putts.

“The good news is we’ve got 36 holes to go so we have got a long way to go, and certainly four shots can be made up.”

England’s Justin Rose took full advantage of Woods closing slide to birdie the 16th and while he also dropped a shot at 18 the Lake Nona based Rose heads into the weekend rounds of the $6.2m event tied with American Bill Haas (66) but still four clear of Woods.

And while Woods’ poor finish shocked Florida fans it also surprised Rose.

“Tiger’s normally a fast finisher, and you can expect him to probably finish fast on the weekend,” said Rose.

“But, absolutely, he did a lot of hard work today.  He actually played really well.  I thought he was probably a couple of shots away from shooting 64 today at times.”

And Ian Poulter let slip moving inside the top-10 with a bogey from a bunker at the last in a score of 69 for a three under par tally.