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Tiger
Woods reacts as he watches after his tee shot on the ninth
hole during the third round of the BMW Championship golf
tournament in Lemont, Ill.
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LEMONT, Ill. — So
this is what greatness looks like.
It's a man hitting 16
of 18 greens on a rugged course and breezy day, a man beating the
field average by nearly nine shots, a man making eagle on a 610-yard
hole, a man flirting with perfection and then saying of his swing:
"You are never near the finished product."
Tiger Woods shot a
9-under 62 Saturday in the third round of the BMW Championship to
break the Cog Hill record by one shot.
His best explanation
for posting a pair of 31s on the Dubsdread course that gives him a
seven-shot leading heading into Sunday?
"I had a lot of
good numbers," he said.
Meaning, good
yardages to the pin.
"He made it look
very easy, that's for sure," playing partner Mark Wilson said.
"It's tough when you walk away nine strokes worse than your
playing partner and feel like you're happy about the round."
Brandt Snedeker and
Australian Marc Leishman are tied for second at 9 under.
Woods sits at 16
under, meaning that unless a UFO lands Sunday and returns him to his
true planet of origin, his 71st PGA Tour victory is in the bag.
"I have to do
something spectacular," Snedeker said, "and he has to
maybe have a heart attack out there."
Woods' 68-67-62 start
means he will need to shoot 65 Sunday to equal the 72-hole Cog Hill
tournament record.
Who owns it? Take a
wild guess. Woods posted a 262 at the 2007 BMW.
"I've always
felt comfortable playing this golf course," he said.
Woods' dominance
makes it a bit uncomfortable for course officials, who know that low
scores — no matter who shoots them — won't help their case to
land a U.S. Open.
"I didn't think
a 62 was possible," Cog Hill owner Frank Jemsek said. "I'm
impressed and glad he played well, but overall we were hoping to
make the course harder. But it's hard to stop that kind scoring when
(Woods) can knock it on a 610-yard hole in two."
Perhaps it's a small
consolation that Matt Kuchar, after shooting a third-round 66, said
of Cog Hill: "God, I can't think of many courses that are
tougher. If the USGA wants to set it up, they could make this as
hard as any course in the country."
Cog Hill played to
7,441 yards on Saturday, 175 yards short of its official, post-Rees
Jones renovation max.
Jones, perhaps, can
take pride in the fact Woods keeps playing the first hole like a
hack. He bogeyed it for the second straight day, again driving left
into a fairway bunker.
But then it was sheer
domination. Woods drained a 15-footer for birdie on No. 3, then
flushed a 7-iron on the 187-yard sixth hole that left him just 3
feet from the cup.
He made another
3-footer for birdie on No. 8 and then went superhuman on the ninth,
hammering home a 10-footer for eagle after a drive of 311 yards and
an approach of 306.
The eagle got him to
11 under, one ahead of Leishman.
"After seeing
what Marc was doing ahead of us," Woods said, "I figured
that you had to get into double digits."
So, what, triple
digits below par is too much to ask?
Woods' 62 is one off
his career low on the PGA Tour. If he had not come up 3 inches short
on a birdie try at the 16th, he would have matched that all-time
best.
"It was a round
that just kind of built upon itself," Woods said. "I kept
hitting good shots and making good putts and, lo and behold, I ended
up at 9 under par."
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