Wrap up of round 3

What a day! US Opens have a slightly mundane feel to them usually because it’s a struggle. It’s a game of survival. This one was the same until halfway through the third round, when suddenly you-know-who caught fire and set the thing alight.

Only Tiger Woods can make two eagles on the back nine in a US Open. Only Tiger Woods can put on a show from primetime tv in America to rival anything the basketball or American football worlds have put on for years.

His eagle on the 13thth was extraordinary, because he made it by sinking a “bomb” as he described it from 60 feet. He celebrated with a triple fist pump. His chip in on the 17th for a birdie (one bounce and in) was unbelievable because his drive at that hole (like his drive at the 13th) was so far right an 18-hanicapper would have been pissed off with it. His eagle on the 18th was again out of this world because his playing partner, Robert Karlsson, had just left a very similar putt right on the edge of the hole. And then Tiger goes one better. Does he have some sort of magic powers which the rest of the field don’t.

Of course he does. Just ask Rocco Mediate. There was a funny moment just after Woods had finished the first of many press conferences. The American, Mediate, who was leading after the second round pretended to ask one final question: “Mr Woods, Mr Woods,” he said, “are you completely out of your mind?” before high-fiving the world number one.

So tomorrow should be quite a day.

In the final pairing England’s own Lee Westwood is paired with Woods. Remember, Woods has always won a major when he has been leading after 54 holes. What Westwood would give for that record to fall tomorrow!

Scores:
210 Tiger Woods
211 Lee Westwood
212 Rocco Mediate
214 Geoff Ogilvy, DJ Trahan
215 Robert Allenby, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Robert Karlsson, Hunter Mahan, Camillo Villegas