Woods Is Down Under by Six Shots

The leader board has 10 golfers separated by six shots and, for a change, Tiger Woods is looking up at eight of them.

Woods, seeking to win on his third continent this year, shot a one-under-par 72 Saturday in the Australian Masters and enters today’s final round tied with Larry Mize and well behind leader Peter O’Malley of Australia.

Woods didn’t capitalize much on O’Malley’s par 73 in the third round over the difficult Huntingdale course. He shot a 72, after rounds of 68 and 70 over a layout that is becoming increasingly difficult because of the dry weather.

“I’m hitting good putts, but they seem to want not to go in,” Woods said. “I’m all around the edges.

“This course doesn’t lend itself to hitting the long ball. It makes no sense to be too aggressive. I just have to make some putts.”

He bogeyed two of the last three holes after struggling with iron shots into the greens.

Woods opened his year by winning the Mercedes Cup at La Costa and last week won the Asian Honda Classic in Thailand. He has five wins in 14 professional starts.

Australian Lucas Parsons, who shared the second-round lead with O’Malley, shot a 74 for 205 and second place.

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Mike Reid, a 20-year PGA Tour veteran who hasn’t won since 1988, overcame a slow start and shot a six-under-par 66 to take a one-stroke lead over Paul Stankowski after three rounds of the Hawaiian Open in Honolulu.

Reid is at 16-under 200. Stankowski charged into second place with a 64 on an up-and-down day.

Reid was behind by as many as three strokes early in the round after bogeying the third and fourth holes. But that was it for over-par scores for the day.

He birdied three par-fives and two par-threes as well as the par-four 14th hole.

His two-putt birdie on the 551-yard 18th put him in sole possession of the lead.

“I was pretty discouraged after the first three weeks of the tour,” Reid said. “I missed two of the cuts by wide margins and barely made it in the third.

“I thought about going home to get ready for Tucson [next week’s tour stop], but my family really convinced me I needed to go out and play.”

Until Reid’s charge on No. 18, it had been Stankowski’s show, a combination of hills and valleys.

Stankowski, who started the day tied for 19th, had a card that showed two eagles and eight birdies against four bogeys. The two eagles came on the first and 18th holes, the last by chipping in from 60 feet off the green.

PGA Tour Player of the Year Tom Lehman again made a back-nine charge to finish with a 69, and last year’s winner Jim Furyk had a 66 to share third place with Jay Don Blake (65), Lee Porter (67) and Len Mattiace (69) at 203.

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Bob Eastwood put together his best round of the year, a 65 in the rain at the PGA Senior Tour’s GTE Classic near Tampa, Fla., and holds a one-shot advantage over Gil Morgan going into the final round.

“It was tedious, a little extra work,” Eastwood said of the conditions that had him and the other contenders popping their umbrellas and slipping in and out of rainwear all afternoon.

“It really didn’t bother me too much,” he added. “You just try to keep as dry as possible and stay focused.”

Eastwood’s round featured seven birdies and one bogey. He had not shot better than a 72 all year.

His 36-hole total of six-under-par 136 on the 6,638-yard layout at the TPC of Tampa Bay left him one stroke ahead of Morgan, who missed putts that would have given him a share of the top spot on the last two holes.

Morgan’s 20-footer caught the lip of the cup, then rolled about a foot past on No. 17. His attempt from 18 feet on the last hole never had a chance, and he settled for a 69 and a two-day total of 137.

“I hit a lot of putts that didn’t break as much as I thought they would or didn’t break at all,” Morgan said.

Ray Floyd shot 66 to head a group that included Tom Wargo (68) and John Bland (69) at four-under 138.

First-round leader John Schroeder double-bogeyed the last two holes and finished with a 75. Defending champion Jack Nicklaus had a 72 and is seven shots behind.