Golf

Tiger Roars to 66 on Saturday, In 3rd But Still 5 Back

Tiger Woods didn’t let two early bogeys get him down during the third round of the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. He instead turned into his former, dominating self and drained eight birdies for one of his best rounds ever in a golf major.

There was significant discussion that this tournament would be an important milestone for Tiger since his exploits came to light last November. He went from dangerously on the cusp of the cut on Friday to now sitting in third place, five behind clubhouse leader Dustin Johnson. The history of Pebble Beach is rich for both golfers: Tiger’s dominance in 2000, naturally, but Johnson also was victorious at Pebble in the last two AT&T Pro-Ams. Sharing the final group with Johnson and sitting in second is Graeme McDowell, the Northern Ireland national who has never won on the American tour, and who’s best finish in a major was 10th in last year’s PGA Championship.

Needless to say: there will be plenty of interest for the primetime broadcast of the championship. Tiger is in the second to last group that tees off at 2:05 p.m. local time, 5:05 here on the east coast. Most of the afternoon’s baseball games and the last World Cup match of the day will be nearly over, and it stands to be a great Father’s Day treat. Five strokes is not a crazy, historic comeback in terms of golf history (Paul Lawrie did recover from 10 behind in the ’99 British Open, but he had an assist from Jean Van de Velde), but it stands to be a finish that will come to the wire. I know I won’t miss it.