Tiger Woods takes gloss off 'beautiful' round with poor finish

By Keith Jackson

Sunday 3 June 2018 00:05, UK

Tiger Woods shrugged off a poor finish to his third round at The Memorial as he remained upbeat about his chances of contending for a sixth win at Muirfield Village.

Woods was six under for the day and 11 under for the tournament with three holes remaining, but he three-putted the 16th and 18th greens to card a disappointing 68 which he described as the highest score he could have shot on day three.

The 42-year-old declared he "played beautifully" for the majority of his round, in which he made significant strides up the leaderboard with a superb finish to his front nine.

Having missed birdie chances from 10-15 feet on three of the first four holes, Woods finally got a putt to drop on the fifth for a brilliant eagle which he followed with birdies at the sixth, seventh and ninth to turn in 31.

But his putter went cold on him for the second day running on the inward half, and he missed from three feet at the 14th before finding the target from 15 feet for a welcome birdie at the next.

Woods gave the shot straight back when he raced his long-range birdie putt seven feet past the cup on the 16th and failed to hole the return, and his stroke faltered again on the final green as his three-footer for par stayed out.

"I know I shot 68 today but that's probably the highest score I could have possibly shot today," said Woods. "I played really, really well. I played beautifully, actually. I had total control of what I was doing out there and just didn't finish it off.