Tiger Woods leaves McIlroy in the woods at Northern Trust

In a head-to-head meeting on Saturday at the third round of the Northern Trust at TPC Boston, Tiger Woods showed Rory McIlroy who is boss, even though both players slipped further down the leaderboard after a disappointing day of golf.

Woods and McIlroy was paired together for an early start on Saturday morning after clawing their way through the cut-mark. Neither player made a fast start to the weekend and had to play their way back into the tournament.

Woods dropped to one under for the week after mixing three birdies with five bogeys in a two-over 73.

McIlroy had an even more difficult time after posting two triple-bogeys in his erratic 74 in the third-round.

Woods and McIlroy occupied the two bottom spots on the leaderboard for the biggest parts of their round. The unwanted title eventually went to Matt Jones after the Australian carded a five-over 76 to drop back to two over for the tournament.

Woods missed his five-foot birdie attempt at the first, only to triple-bogey the next after hitting water with his first shot and then three-putting from 40 feet. McIlroy rolled in from eight feet at the first.

Woods cancelled out his eight-foot birdie at the second by bogeying the par-three next. Here a two-shot swing saw McIlroy convert from 10 feet.

From worse to worse

Neither player managed to take advantage of the driveable fourth. Woods failed to get up and down from the sand to save par at the fifth. McIlroy racked up a triple-bogey at the par-four sixth.

Woods missed from four feet at the seventh and matched McIlroy's par but birdied the ninth to reach the turn in level-par, as the Northern Irishman stuttered to a front-nine 40.

Both players bogeyed the 14th and parred their next three holes before birdieing the last. McIlroy managed to find the par-five green in two and two-putting for his closing birdie and Woods rolling in his effort from seven feet. Needless to say, even though Tiger now has limited bragging rights over Rory, it was a pretty disappointing round of golf for both of these legends.

Neither player spoke to the press after their lackluster rounds and both face another early start on Sunday for the conclusion. One can only hope that both golfers will get back into the swing of things.

Fortunately both Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have already qualified for next week's BMW Championship. Woods, however, is still battling to break into the top 30 in the FedExCup standings and qualify for the season-ending Tour Championship.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/31nqp1L