Woods charges into contention with third-round 66 at Carnoustie

It was his first round in the 60s on the weekend of an Open since 2007, when he shot a Saturday 69 at Carnoustie.

Woods, who has not won a major since the 2008 US Open, also birdied the fourth and followed a bogey on the 10th with another birdie from 35 feet on the next, but dropped shots on the 13th and 15th and had to settle for a level-par 71. When he closed with a crowd-pleasing, 5-under-par 66, it marked his lowest number in a major tournament since the 2011 Masters (57 major rounds ago), and his lowest on a weekend since the 2010 U.S. Open (70 major rounds ago).

But despite carding a 72 – 1 over and 6 shots off first-round leader Kevin Kisner – he is adamant he can still defend his title if he improves his execution.

By then, it looked like the big thing was just bragging.

“Yeah, I think when I played 18 on Monday, I definitely thought that, you know, it was going to be beneficial to be as aggressive as I possibly could be”, said McIlroy.

“The up and down at 18 kept me in the fight”.

But, after gouging his ball back into play, Woods clipped a delightful third to three feet and rattled in the par-saving putt to stay at five under heading into the final round. “I got off to not exactly the best start, being 2 over through three, but got it back”, he said.

“There were quite a few guys five or six under par after 12 holes”, Woods said after his round.

“I could have cleaned up the round just a little bit”.

After pitching back on to the fairway Woods hit a superb third shot to two feet to crucially save par and finish a shot behind clubhouse leader Francesco Molinari, who carded a flawless 65.

Tiger Woods discusses his third day at Carnoustie where he finished with a very impressive score of 66.

Woods claimed not to have noticed he had spent about 20 minutes atop the board.

He won’t hold the lead or co-lead going into the final round, but he’ll have a late Sunday tee time at a major championship, which is not a sentence I envisioned typing this time previous year.

“I didn’t know if I carried it or not, if it was in the hazard or rough”.

Tiger Woods had arrived at the course with Kinesio Tape visible on the back of his neck, a worrying sign given the 42-year-old’s litany of injury problems in recent seasons.

“Yeah I do (enjoy it), three-times major champion Spieth told reporters”. It came down at the very edge of the burn and then bounced off the edge back into play.

“I’m really happy with where I am at the moment”. 6 and 14) on Saturday. He made another bogey on the next hole, and just like that he was on the cut line. He hit 80 percent of fairways and 78 percent of greens.

It was not quite good enough to trouble Tommy Fleetwood’s overall course record of 63, set past year at the Dunhill Championship, but it allowed him to retain some hope of becoming the first English victor of the Claret Jug since Nick Faldo in 1992.

Jordan Spieth of the US reacts on the 18th during the second round.