Tiger Woods vented his anger in bogeying his closing three holes on Friday to maul the field on day three of the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando.
Woods went back to his hotel room so furious in falling five shots behind second round leader he sat up all night watching TV coverage of the start of the NCAA basketball ‘Championship’.
“I was hot, really hot for a very long time after how I finished on Friday, so much so that I sat up watching a lot of games last night,” said Woods smiling.
“But I was fine today. Once I got up, it was a new day, but last night I was pretty hot.”
Woods came back to the course on day three to snatch an eagle and five birdies in a sizzling six under par 66 to move to move two clear of his rivals at 11-under par.
Tomorrow marks 871 days since Woods was last World No.1 in the world and that was 30th October, 2010.
In that time Woods has seen four players, all Europeans in Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy, trade places for the game’s top-ranked position.
And unless McIlroy can regain his double Major winning form at this week’s Shell Houston Open then Woods, who will not compete in Texas, will go to Augusta red hot to win a 14th Major.
Also if Woods does succeed at Bay Hill he will match a PGA Tour record of eight victories set by the late Sam Snead who won eight Greater Greensboro Open titles.
“I enjoy what I am doing and this is why we play the game to get ourselves in this position to have a chance to win golf tournaments,” said Woods.
“But getting back to No. 1 in the world was one of my goals to get back to that position after being out of the top 50 there for a while, being hurt, and having all my points come off where I couldn’t play.
“That was not a fun stretch, but I had to get healthy in order to compete, and so far I’ve had five wins on our Tour in the last couple years. So I’m heading in the right direction.”
Rose got off to a flyer to be four under after four thanks to birdies at one and three and then holing a 20-foot putt for eagle off the green at the fourth.
However the local Orlando-based Rose, who is looking to end a 54-week winless drought, produced a roller-coaster back nine of just one birdie but also four bogeys.
Rose was on his own in second place at 10-under par heading to the par three, 17th but a bogey from five feet meant missing out on a final round tee time in the last group alongside Woods.
He will now start the final round on nine under and tied with the American duo of Rickie Fowler (67) and John Huh (71) tied in second at nine under par.
Fowler, who was first to finish on nine under par, will partner Woods over the final round of the $6.2m event.
Sharing fifth place only three behind Woods is Spain’s Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (68) and talented Dane Thorbjorn Olesen (66).
