On Saturday, Woods managed to finish up with three birdies in his last six holes to get 8-under after three rounds, leaving him in fourth place. That’s only four shots from game leaders Matt Kuchar and Gary Woodland, who are ahead with 12-under.
Woods begins his days relatively pain free, but by the end of the day, treatment is the only postgame activity for the world’s No1 player.
“It starts off great every day, and then it progressively deteriorates as the day goes on,” he said. “Hopefully tomorrow it will be one of those days again and fight through it and see if I can win a tournament.”
“I think it’s isolated,” he said when asked if it might be a disc problem. “I mean, once you start off with it and then you keep playing on it, practicing, warming up . . . I’m loading it pretty good. It’s not like I go out there and puff it around. I kind of go at it a little bit.”
If Woods is to take his 80th career win on tour, he will need to play through his pain and have a game like he did on Saturday.
“Hopefully, tomorrow, it will be one of those days again and fight through it and see if I can win the tournament,” Woods said.
