Lahiri moves up to T-46, Woods show good form but List leads

Anirban Lahiri carded a second successive one-over 71 but improved his position marginally to T-46th at the end of the third round of the Honda Classic, here.

Lahiri, who had rounds of 73 and 71 on first two days, did well to recover from two bogeys in his first five holes. On the seventh he got his solitary birdie of the day and then followed that with up with 11 straight pars.

He would, however, be ruing a couple of close birdie misses from inside 10 feet besides another one for par. The PGA National continued to play tough and the average for the round was 71, which however may have been somewhat better than 72.6 for the first day and 73.1 for the second.
 

Meanwhile, Luke List recorded a second straight 66 and moved into sole lead at seven-under and he was one clear of Justin Thomas, whose 65 was the best of the day.

Much as List and Jamie Lovemark, the co-leader after 36 holes, were playing well and keeping their cards clean on the front nine at PGA National, the focus of the fans and everyone else was Tiger Woods (69).

List saw that as an advantage and said. "It's kind of nice having Tiger in the field now because he takes all the attention off everybody else, so you can just kind of go out and do your own thing."

List leads by one over Thomas and Webb Simpson (66).

Woods made bogeys on the notorious par 3s on the back nine, and finished with a birdie for a 69. It was the first time he broke 70 on the PGA TOUR in the 12 rounds since he first stepped away with a series of back surgeries after the 2015 Wyndham Championship. While only 10 players were ahead of him, Woods still was seven shots behind.

Woods still felt, "I've got a shot going into tomorrow.

Alex Noren of Sweden, who lost in a playoff at Torrey Pines, hit 3-wood that rolled out to 4 feet from the pin on No. 18 for an eagle and a 65. He was three behind.

Woods has been progressively better every day at PGA National, except for one hole a double bogey each of the last two days that slowed him. Saturday was an exception. He made his two bogeys on the par 3s on the back nine, but he putted for birdie 14 out of 18 holes, and only one of those putts was longer than 25 feet.