SAN DIEGO — Vintage “Tiger roars” returned Saturday to the South Course at Torrey Pines, where Tiger Woods has won nine tournament titles during his career.
It didn’t seem to matter to the huge galleries following him that Woods, 42, was now ranked No. 647 in the world or that he began the day near the bottom of the 77 players who survived the 36-hole cut at the Farmers Insurance Open.
He was still the game’s biggest name, the 14-time major winner making a comeback here after a year away from the PGA Tour to deal with a deteriorating spine. And he was playing in the third round of a tournament for the first time since 2015.
Even though Woods wildly sprayed the ball off the tee, he posted a two-under-par 70 on Saturday, a one-shot improvement over his second round, which was a one-shot improvement over his first.
His total of three-under 213 left him tied for 39th heading into Sunday’s final round, eight shots behind the leader, Alex Noren.
Woods elicited loud cheers with an assortment of impressive shots from the rough and out of the bunkers, as well as several lengthy par-saving putts.
But because he hit only 3 of 14 fairways and 9 of 18 greens in regulation, a laughing Woods summed up his round as “gross,” adding that he was “fighting and grinding” throughout the round.
“I tried as hard as I possibly could out there, but I didn’t have much today,” he said. “I fought and put up a score.”
Woods made four birdies — all after hitting his tee shots into the rough — and two bogeys: at the par-3 11th and the par-3 16th after pulling his iron shots left.
Starting his round on the back nine, he hit his first six tee shots into deep rough. His seventh found a greenside bunker. He hit his first fairway at the par-4 17th. But on the strength of his chipping, bunker play and putting, he was able to make the turn at one-under par (two-under total).
Woods hooked a 3-wood into the left rough on No. 10, missing the fairway on his opening hole for the third consecutive round. His second shot found the right greenside bunker, and then he blasted out to 12 feet and made the par putt to set off the day’s first roar. It was the first of nine holes in this round in which he needed only one putt.
There were two more roars on the 504-yard, par-4 12th hole — first when Woods’s 196-yard shot from the deep right rough stopped on the green and then when he rolled in a 10-footer for an improbable birdie.
He also birdied from the right rough on the par-5 13th,where he laid up to 111 yards and made a 15-footer; from the right rough on No. 18, where he made a 15-footer; and from the right rough on the 560-yard, par-5 sixth, which he reached in two shots and two-putted from 40 feet.
His par saves were equally impressive. On Nos. 14 and 15, both par-4s, his drives settled in the rough; his approach shots found greenside bunkers; and he saved par with putts of 18 and 8 feet.
His most difficult par save came on the downhill No. 7, a 200-yard par-3, where his 7-iron hit near the flagstick but bounced off the back of the green and rolled into a deep collection area. His sand wedge flop shot stopped 3 feet from the cup, and he made the putt. He also got up and down from deep greenside rough on the par-3 eighth hole for another par.
“It was a struggle out there,” said Woods, who had spinal fusion surgery last April. “I didn’t hit it worth a darn all day.”