Woods Is Back on Target

Tiger Woods wasn’t about to let one bad swing keep him from where he wanted to be--in the lead Saturday at the Bay Hill Invitational, and in position to win for the first time this year.

After hitting into the water and making bogey on the easiest hole at Bay Hill in Orlando, Fla., the 481-yard par-five 16th, Woods made an immediate and spectacular recovery. He hit a four-iron from 210 yards into a stiff breeze to about 10 inches on the par-three 17th and eventually wound up with a six-under-par 66.

That was enough to give him a one-stroke lead over Sergio Garcia going into the final round, which will start early today because of an approaching storm system.

Woods was at 12-under 204, and had the outright lead after 54 holes for the first time in 10 PGA Tour events, dating to the NEC Invitational in August.

Garcia hit his approach at the 18th hole to about four feet for birdie and had a 68.

But this will hardly be a match-play situation.

Chris Perry had a 69 and, at 206, will join Woods and Garcia in the final group.

Another stroke back was Masters champion Vijay Singh, while a large group at 208 includes Phil Mickelson and Greg Norman, playing his first PGA Tour event this year.

Scott McCarron had a chance to catch Woods until he hit into the water on the 18th hole and took a triple bogey to fall back into the group at 208.

Woods, the defending champion, started his round two strokes off the lead but looked early on like the player who won nine PGA Tour events and three consecutive majors last year.

He birdied six of his first 11 holes, and perhaps the biggest one was a 12-footer on the par-three seventh. It was the kind of putt that had been sliding by or lipping out all year, but this one broke gently from left to right and dropped in.

“I had momentum on my side,” Woods said. “I just hopped on and rode it.”

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One day after shooting the first 59 in an LPGA Tour event, Annika Sorenstam looked a little more ordinary.

Sorenstam, who had a record 13 birdies in her round Friday, made four Saturday. But she bogeyed the last hole for a three-under 69 that left her only three strokes ahead of an aggressive Se Ri Pak going into the final round of the Standard Register Ping at Phoenix.

Sorenstam’s second bogey of the tournament and first in the last 47 holes left her tied with Karrie Webb for the LPGA’s 54-hole scoring record at 23-under 193. Webb set the mark last year in East Lansing, Mich.

Pak shot a 63 and finished at 196--making this the first LPGA tournament in history in which two players have been 20 under or better after three rounds.

Pak had two eagles, including one hole-out from the fairway.

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Hale Irwin played an unspectacular round free of any big errors, and in the maddening conditions at the Siebel Classic at San Jose, that was enough to give him a narrow lead.

Irwin’s two-under 70 was punctuated by a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th, giving him a one-stroke lead over six players, including Jack Nicklaus, entering today’s final round of the inaugural event on the senior tour.

The field was challenged by everything from a strong, steady wind to the shouts of hecklers driving on Highway 101, running directly through Coyote Creek Golf Club just south of the San Francisco Bay. None of the first-round leaders managed to break par, and 30 players were within five strokes of the lead.

Irwin made four birdies and avoided big trouble with solid drives and improved putting from his previous round. He finished at three-under 141.