AP
Tiger is aiming for a good finish Sunday to make things easier for him in Boston.
PARAMUS, N.J. -- One bad swing put Tiger Woods in a hole Saturday, and he spent the rest of the afternoon playing catch-up at Ridgewood Country Club in the third round of The Barclays.
On the par-4 first hole, Woods hooked his tee shot out of bounds on the left and carded a triple-bogey 7. He played the next 17 holes 2-under par to finish with a respectable 1-over 72 but fell well off the pace in the first of four PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedExCup.
"I got caught between the two swings," said Woods, who is working on a new swing with instructor Sean Foley. "And I wasn't committed to what I was doing, and I was just -- that's strictly from lack of commitment. And I wasn't focused on exactly what I should have been doing, what I've been doing on the range, what I've been doing the last couple of weeks, and it backfired. And after that, I just said, 'Hey, put it away.' Be committed to what I'm doing each and every shot for the rest of the day. And I hit the ball really good all day."
Woods has a 54-hole score of 3-under 210 and trails pacesetter Martin Laird by nine strokes. The good news is that Woods is tied for 28th and will qualify for next week's second playoff event with a solid showing on Sunday. He currently ranks 112th on the points list and is projected to need to finish in a tie for 59th or better to advance to the Deutsche Bank Championship.
"I'm very excited about what I'm doing, how I'm hitting the golf ball," said Woods, who said his ball is carrying further than ever. "The shots that I'm hitting, the crispness coming off and how many shots I hit the last three rounds pin-high, exactly pin-high. That's something I haven't done all year."
Playing with Heath Slocum in partly cloudy conditions and temperatures in the high 70s, Woods rebounded from the awful start with seven straight pars. He made clutch par saves at Nos. 6 and 7, doing so at the latter after missing the green way right, then hitting a sweet flop shot just inside eight feet.
"Absolutely," Woods said. "Huge mud ball on 7. And then big putt there made at 6. I needed to make that putt to not let it slide any further."
Woods dropped another shot at the par-4 ninth, where he drove into the left fairway bunker, came up short of the green with his second shot and failed to get up-and-down, two-putting from 15 feet. He made the turn in 4-over 39.
But Woods battled back. Following two-putt pars at 10, 11 and 12, he birdied the par-5 13th hole. Woods hit a big drive and came up just short of the green in two. He pitched his third shot two feet from the hole and polished off his first birdie of the round.
Woods made another nice save at the par-3 15th, where his 9-iron rolled just over the green. He chipped to four feet and made the putt.
After a long two-putt par at 16, Woods hit two big 3-woods and reached the green in two at the par-5 17th, two-putting for a birdie from 20 feet. He finished strong, crushing a driver at the par-4 18th, then hit a 7-iron from 187 yards eight feet right of the cup and poured in the putt.
"I pretty much striped it the entire back nine," he said. "Had a couple of mud balls on the back nine but other than that, it was all right."
Woods was proud of himself for regrouping after the first tee shot.
"In the end, ended up probably costing me a chance to win the golf tournament," Woods said. "But I'm pleased how I sucked it up and got it back the rest of the day when it easily could have gone the other way."
After missing only two fairways the first two rounds, Woods hit 57 percent of them Saturday. He still leads the field in that category, hitting 81 percent.
Woods also hit 61 percent of the greens in regulation and used 29 putts, the latter an improvement of four from Friday's round.
"Just trying to be more committed to being still, steady, releasing the blade," he said. "Making that toe move. That's always when I putt my best is when I make the toe move. And it felt pretty good today."
Woods said his swing changes are a work in progress and he must be patient. That said, he still needs to post a good number Sunday to continue in the playoffs.
"I have to think of swing because it's not natural yet," said Woods. "But I have to think about what I'm doing to produce a certain shot, where before I could just step up and just hit it. I'm not there yet."
Woods tees off Sunday at 10:50 a.m. ET with Michael Sim.