For two days, the best of golfers covered the 7400-yard course at Albany without the ‘elements’ coming into play. However, on a windy Saturday afternoon the course tested the golfers’ skills to the hilt. At the end, though Charley Hoffman battled to stay comfortably ahead, Tiger Woods was blown away.
Only four under-par scores were posted with Hoffman bringing in a two-under 70 for a five-stroke lead over Justin Rose and Jordan Spieth.
Rose, like Francesco Molinari and Patrick Reed, shot a 71 to stay closer to the leader. But the much-followed Tiger lost his way with a 75.
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Starting the day at seven-under and tied for the fifth place, the 41-year-old slipped to share the 10th spot, with a round to go.
Candidly, Tiger assessed the round, “Well, that’s just golf. We’re always going to face adversity. It was frustrating that I couldn’t get it turned around on the easier holes. I birdied the 14th but I played four par 5s and I hadn’t made a birdie yet. That’s not very good.
Even Hoffman had his moments of despair. He double-bogeyed the 10th hole after landing in the bushes and blew away two-stroke lead that let at least six golfers come into contention.
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But the 40-year-old broke away on the closing holes. Hoffman birdied the 14th, 15th and 18th holes while Rose and Spieth bogeyed twice and birdied once while coming in.
Third round scores: 202: Charley Hoffman (US) (69, 63, 70); 207: Justin Rose (Eng) (68, 68, 71), Jordan Speith (US) (68, 67, 72); 208: Francesco Molinari (Ita) (69, 68, 71); 209: Rickie Fowler (US) (67, 70, 72), Patrick Reed (US) (72, 66, 71), Matt Kuchar (US) (67, 70, 72), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn) (71, 66, 72), Tommy Fleetwood (US) (66, 69, 74).
212: Kevin Chappell (US) (68, 70, 74), Tiger Woods (US) (69, 68, 75); 213: Justin Thomas (US) (69, 70, 74); 216 – Alex Noren (Swe) (73, 69, 74), Dustin Johnson (US) (68, 72, 76); 217: Kevin Kisner (US) (70, 72, 75); 218: Daniel Berger (US) (75, 73, 70), Henrik Stenson (Swe) (70, 71, 77); 221: Brooks Koepka (US) (71, 78, 72).