With a five-under-par 66 in the third round, Woods was again challenging to win his 15th career major, something that has not happened for five golf seasons.
CARNOUSTIE, Scotland — For about 20 minutes on Saturday, Tiger Woods was tied for the lead at the 2018 British Open. When his round was over, he was asked what it felt like to be atop the leaderboard.
A decade ago, when he last won a major championship, he would probably have considered the question an insult.
But on Saturday, he paused and smiled. For a moment, there was no response.
The question was rephrased.
“When was the last time you felt like this in a major?”
Woods grinned wider.
“In a major?” he replied. “Well, I haven’t played in too many — it’s been a few years.”
That’s how long the golf world has gone without Woods as a contender late in a major championship. It was all but a distant memory to Woods himself.
But on Saturday, with a stirring five-under-par 66 in the third round, Woods was again challenging to win his 15th career major, something that had not happened for five golf seasons.
At five under for the tournament, after even-par 71s on Thursday and Friday, Woods was tied for sixth place, four strokes behind the leaders, Jordan Spieth, Kevin Kisner and Xander Schauffele.
Woods’s charge electrified the galleries here at the Carnoustie Golf Links and filled Woods with a kind of confidence not readily seen in recent years.
Making up five strokes on the leaders on Sunday, Woods said, is “definitely doable.”
“I’m right there; I have a chance,” he added. “They’re within reach.”
With six birdies and only one bogey on Saturday, Woods was buoyed, and perhaps even content, something he rarely seems.
“It felt great, it was a lot of fun,” he said. “Just nice — great. I really didn’t feel like I made a bad swing until 18.”
And he still made par on the 18th hole with a wedge shot from 83 yards that stopped less than four feet from the hole. And unlike the confused, wayward golfer he had been on greens a month ago, Woods confidently drilled his final putt of the day into the middle of the hole.
While Woods came into Saturday’s third round on the heels of consecutive 71s, his recent history in majors made a charge up the leaderboard unexpected.
He finished tied for 32nd at this year’s Masters and missed the cut at the United States Open at the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club last month. Before that, as he noted, he was mostly absent from the spotlight in major championship golf, if not missing entirely.
From 2015 to 2017, Woods played on the weekend of just one major. He missed major tournament golf entirely for two straight seasons, and in the last five seasons, he has made it to a third round in a major only three times.
But on Saturday, Woods birdied the fourth and sixth holes to move to two under par for the tournament, which brought him within sight of the leaders. Then, at the ninth hole, a thunderous roar wafting across the golf course announced that Woods was undoubtedly a factor in the tournament when he sank a 40-foot birdie putt.
Successive birdies at the 10th and 11th holes followed, then another birdie at the par-5 14th hole.
Woods had largely been eschewing his driver in the previous two days to avoid Carnoustie’s daunting rough, but on Saturday, he had no compunction about pulling out the longest club in his bag on the tee. He used it, in fact, to set up what was an easy birdie on No. 14.
Now he was atop the leaderboard, a sight that roused the Scottish fans here, among whom Woods is immensely popular.
“I had no problem working off their energy,” Woods said.
His lone significant hiccup came at the par-3 16th hole, where his tee shot found the green but then trickled just off the putting surface to the right.
Woods’s initial putt, uphill from about 30 feet, stopped eight feet short of the hole. The fans in the large grandstand behind the green groaned.
Walking toward his ball, he immediately swung his putter through the air along the same line again but more forcefully, the universal, silent golfer’s lament: Hit it harder.
Then Woods’s par putt slid past the hole. More groans from the crowd. Woods dropped from the top spot on the leaderboard.
“Two bad putts in a row,” he said.
But on the dicey 17th hole, Woods’s first two shots were precise, and he two-putted for par. At the 18th hole, where many a round has been ruined, Woods’s conservative iron shot off the tee missed ending up in the winding water hazard by five feet. Still, Woods was in deep rough and he pitched out, setting up the crisp wedge to four feet.
He needed the par putt, and he knew it.
“It was big for me to not finish with two bogeys on the last three holes,” Woods said. “So that was another good putt.”
Minutes later, Woods was at ease, even though he knew that the gaggle of golfers playing after him would send him a few spots down the leaderboard.
“I’ve got a chance at this, which is great,” he said.
The weather forecast for Sunday in eastern Scotland may include some rain and even a bit of wind. Woods was actively rooting for it, and said so twice. Playing in his 20th British Open, he figured that his experience would give him an edge on the mostly young golfers ahead of him on the leaderboard.
Woods was asked how relaxed he would be Saturday night — whether he would sleep comfortably. He seemed incredulous.
He shot his inquisitor a look that seemed to say: I’ve been here before, you know.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Woods said.
He has indeed been here before. Just not lately.
