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After two seconds at the HSBC Champions, Tiger finds himself in second again.
Woods has a 54-hole score of 12-under 204 and is tied for second with Nick Watney, two strokes behind Phil Mickelson. The trio will play together Sunday in the final round.
The 33-year-old Woods has dominated WGC events, winning 16 of 30 starts and has 27 top-10 finishes. Twice, he has been a runner-up in this tournament.
Paired with Watney and Ryan Moore in the last threesome Saturday, and trailed by a massive gallery, Woods started the final round tied with Watney at 10-under. After parring the first hole, he drained an eight-foot birdie putt at the par-5 second.
Following a two-putt par at No. 3, Woods missed the green to the right at the par-3 fourth, but chipped to six inches and easily saved par. A beautiful approach shot at the par-4 fifth left him with a three-foot birdie putt below the hole, which he converted.
Woods parred the sixth and seventh holes, then struck for another birdie at the par-5 eighth. He drove into a left fairway bunker, blasted out and hit his third shot 12 feet above the hole to earn a two-stroke lead.
However, he dropped a shot at the par-4 ninth -- only his third bogey of the week -- again finding a fairway bunker off the tee. Woods was forced to play short of the green, hit a good third shot just inside 10 feet and missed the putt to make the turn in 2-under 34.
Rebounding quickly, Woods poured in a 20-foot birdie putt at the par-4 10th. But he gave it back at the par-4 11th after he missed the fairway, slashed short of the green and was unable to salvage par from 14 feet.
Woods did save par at the par-3 12th, hitting a nice chip from behind the green within two feet of the hole. After a two-putt par at 13, he squandered a good birdie chance at the par-5 14th, failing to get up-and-down from just short of the green.
At the difficult par-4 15th, a bad drive and poor second shot into the front, greenside bunker put Woods in jeopardy of making another bogey. But he nearly holed a long explosion shot and escaped with a par.
Woods found the fairway with an iron off the tee at the short par-4 16th and had 70 yards to the green. His sand wedge approach finished eight feet behind the cup, but he was unable to convert the birdie attempt.
The top-ranked Woods nearly holed a 17-foot birdie try at the par-3 17th hole. At the par-5 18th, he drove into the left rough and was unable to go for the water-guarded green in two. After a nice lay-up, Woods hit his third shot into the left, greenside bunker and short-sided himself.
However, he hit a wonderful bunker shot four feet past the hole and saved par.
Woods will hope to improve his ball-striking in the final round. On Saturday, he hit only nine of 18 greens in regulation.