Tiger Woods stumbled to a level par 72 but retained a share of the lead at the JBWere Masters at Kingston Heath in Melbourne.
World number one struggles but stays in contention
Tiger Woods stumbled to a level par 72 but retained a share of the lead at the JBWere Masters at Kingston Heath in Melbourne.
Rounds of 69 from Greg Chalmers and James Nitties earned the Australian pair a share of the lead at 10 under, alongside the world number one.
Woods, the only player in the top 12 on the leaderboard not to break par, conceded his third round score of level-par 72 could have been a lot worse.
"I hit some really good shots out there, but I hit some terrible shots as well - it was either-or - there was no grey area today," said Woods.
"I'm very fortunate to be tied for the lead."
Very little went right for Woods, who failed to generate any momentum although his waywardness off the tee did not help.
The American started par, birdie, bogey before churning out six successive pars to the turn to be out in 36, and his back nine largely mirrored the front.
The low-point of Woods' day came at the par-three 11th when, after missing the green to the left, he heaved his chip.
The ball scurried across the glassy green and nestled, fortuitously, on the lip of a bunker on the opposite side and the resultant bogey dropped him back to nine under.
Woods recovered that setback with a belated birdie at the 14th and came close to regaining the outright lead when his four-yard putt for birdie at 16 horseshoed around the hole.
Chalmers, who started the day tied for second with Nitties and Jason Dufner of the United States three shots off the pace, announced himself with four birdies on a near-faultless front nine.
Birdie putts
The 36-year old left-hander split fairways, hit greens and gave himself a succession of birdie putts, two of which he managed to sink from long distance.
He found the back nine tougher, but minimised the damage to just a single bogey.
"I would have loved to have taken advantage of some of the shorter holes on the back nine, there's a couple of birdies to be had if you play those holes well," said Chalmers.
"I played them okay, just not great but I'm pleased, I'm really in a great position going into tomorrow."
Nitties, whose month leading up to the Masters was golf-free, was the only player in the top 12 not to drop a shot.
The 26-year-old had two birdies on the front nine and one on the back to mark his card today.
"Today was probably my best ball-striking round of the week," he said.
"It's been good because I was pretty rusty coming in here and didn't have much expectation and I've played myself into form."
