Tiger Woods’ game is close but he’s far off the lead

The opportunities slipped away from Tiger Woods like birdie putts rolling just past the edge of the cup.

They disappeared like a tee shot sailing into the tall weeds.

“The golf course could have been had today,” he said.

Not that Woods felt entirely disappointed by his play Saturday in the third round at the Frys.com Open. But a few close misses and a pair of careless bogeys left him at four-under par, well off the lead heading into Sunday.

“I was very close to really putting it together,” he said after a second straight round of 68. “I wasn’t that far away.”

So much for a fairy tale start to the former No. 1 player’s latest comeback attempt. Anyone interested in a better-late-than-never story?

That one would star Briny Baird, a career journeyman whose late charge at CordeValle Golf Club, including an eagle on the 17th hole, put him in first place at 13-under 200.

Baird has won $11.9 million in 347 starts on the PGA Tour, the most career earnings by a player who has yet to win.

“You’re going to get nervous,” he said, looking ahead to the final round. “I’m definitely a little out of my element up near the lead of a golf tournament.”

Baird will be paired with Ernie Els and Paul Casey, both of whom started Saturday atop the leaderboard and finished two shots back at 11 under. Recently inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, Els has not been in the mix on Sunday for a while.

But that doesn’t seem to worry him.

“I don’t think your memory disappears after 20 years of being out here,” he said. “I don’t think you forget how to win, you know.”

Four players, including Charlie Wi and an impressive newcomer named Bud Cauley, enter the final round at 10 under.

As for Woods, he crept within a few shots of the lead early Saturday, but could not keep the momentum going.

Starting on the back nine, he barely missed two birdie chances just before the turn. “Certain putts you’ve got to make,” he said. Then came trouble with a pair of par-threes on the front nine.

It took him two swings to get out of a greenside bunker on the third hole. That wayward tee shot into the weeds on No. 7 resulted in another bogey.

Like most of his misses this week, both of those balls flew left of target.

“I hit it well all day except for a couple of [shots],” he said. “But I know what the fixes are.”

If so, that bodes well for the future. But it’s probably too late for Sunday.

david.wharton@latimes.com

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