Abu Dhabi Championship: Tiger Woods, Tied For The Lead, Downplays Performance

Tiger Woods seems to be back on track after shooting a six-under 66 on the third day of the PGA’s tour through Abu Dhabi. Woods is in a tie at the top of the leaderboard entering Sunday’s final round at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, but he didn’t seem to have a lot of the confidence most remember from the former No. 1 golfer.

Woods, who won the Chevron Challenge exhibition in the offseason, hasn’t been atop the leaderboard in a PGA event through Day 3 since winning the 2009 Australian Open, but he downplayed his performance when talking to the press.

“It just seemed like I didn’t do a lot of things right but I didn’t do a lot of things wrong today, it was just very consistent,” Woods said. “You know, made a couple putts here and there ... I stayed away from trouble and tried to keep the ball towards the fat side of some of these pins and I think I did a pretty good job.”

Woods didn’t think his performance was all bad, however, he just shied away from saying it was great as he focused on simply being consistent.

“It’s fun when I’m able to control the golf ball like I did,” Woods told the AP. “To shape the ball both ways. Just a very consistent round. Things are progressing. It’s getting better.”

Britain’s Robert Rock is tied with Woods as they’re both currently 11-under heading into Sunday morning’s (2:45 a.m. ET tee-off), but it doesn’t sounds as though Woods’ current competition is preparing for a David vs. Goliath match-up on the golf course.

“Not sure how much sleep I’ll get,” Rock said when asked how he felt playing with Tiger for the first time. “I think when I’ve made decent contact on the first hole hopefully then I’ll start playing the game properly.”
Rock sounded like a man preparing for defeat, but what if he could win? “It would be beyond anything that I thought I could do.”

Either way, it should create for a compelling story on the final day of the Abu Dhabi Championship.

Visit Waggle Room and SB Nation Golf for more on the golf season.