SAN DIEGO – For the second straight day Tiger Woods hit just three of 14 fairways and nine greens in regulation, but he kept it together with his short game at the Farmers Insurance Open. On another warm, picturesque day at Torrey Pines, Woods got up and down seven times in nine chances to salvage a 2-under 70 in the third round. At 3 under, he is eight shots behind the 54-hole leader, Sweden’s Alex Noren (69). “Well, that’s just fighting, you know, fighting and grinding,â€� Woods said after missing a birdie putt of just over 10 feet at the par-5 ninth hole to end his four-birdie, two-bogey round. “I tried as hard as I possibly could out there. I didn’t have much, but I fought and put up a score and made some putts.â€� When Woods didn’t miss left, he missed right. Or long. Or short. He saw parts of Torrey Pines that probably aren’t even visible from a paraglider. But in his first PGA TOUR start in exactly a year he was in mid-season form around the greens, showing soft hands on pitches and chips, and taking 26 putts. “His short game is probably as good if not better than I remember it being,â€� said Brandt Snedeker (74, 1 over), who along with Sung Kang (75, 2 over) played with Woods. “The long game is there. It’s just, as anybody will tell you, you need reps, you need real-time speed, real-time thought process to get over those nerves. I’ve known Tiger for a long time; he gets nervous for the first five or six holes, and the swing is a little bit out of sequence and it throws you off. “The things I look for is his fight and his grind, and is he doing the short-game stuff, and it’s all there. It’s not as far away as I thought it would be, just starting out and not being able to play professional golf for two years.â€� Woods is a 79-time TOUR winner and has 14 major championship titles to his name, so it was only human to wonder how his fused back would hold up, and how he would perform under tournament pressure. He had looked comfortable making his professional comeback at the unofficial Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas last month, finishing ahead of such players as Justin Thomas. But Albany is generous off the tee, and the rough is friendly. Not so at Torrey Pines. The most telling stat so far this week: Woods has hit just six of his last 28 fairways. “I didn’t hit it worth a darn all day,â€� he said. “I was really struggling out there trying to find anything that was resemblance of a golf swing. But I was scoring, I was chipping, putting, I was grinding. “I was trying to miss the ball on the correct sides because I knew I didn’t have it, trying to give myself the correct angles, and I did that most of the day. Then I had to rely on my touch, my feel, my putting, and it’s been good all week.â€� Thick crowds followed Woods all the way around. There was a woman in a tiger onesie, a man in a T-shirt with a photo of a steely-eyed Tiger and the words, “Who said I was done?â€� The air over Torrey was filled with planes towing banners, paragliders, a helicopter, and the Goodyear Blimp. And the weather was the sort that compels people to move to California. The fans said, “Have you ever seen a living legend?â€� And, “C’mon, this isn’t 25-year-old Tiger Woods.â€� The man they’d come to see got up and down from the steep embankment behind the green at the par-3 third hole, and from the collar just in front of the fourth green. His play from tee to green may have been “grossâ€� (Woods’ word), but it was also tidy. Saturday marked the second straight day in which Woods went seven-for-nine in scrambling. “His short game is unbelievable,â€� Snedeker said. “I was impressed. He hit a bunch of tough ones out there that could have gone either way. He hit some really quality pitch shots. This rough is tough to judge. You normally hit some 10 or 12 feet by, and he didn’t do that, judged it very well all day. He rolled it fantastic, obviously, which helps.â€� As for the rest? Coming back from an injury takes time, as Snedeker can attest. He missed half the year with a strained rib last season, and as a two-time Farmers champion he thought he was headed for something special this week when he shot 65 on the South Course on Wednesday. It just hasn’t happened for Snedeker yet. Or for Woods. “He hit some wild ones early, and then on the back nine started getting some more findable, on the planet,â€� Snedeker said. “Tiger brings the excitement, people going crazy on every hole, and it’s fun to have that back. We need that in golf.â€�
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