Tiger Woods shoots his lowest score ever at The Players Championship as Webb Simpson pulls clear

Tiger Woods turned in his best round of the season and his lowest score ever at The Players Championship.

It sky-rocketed him up the leaderboard, and he stayed there.

Woods shot a 7-under 65 in the third round on Saturday, besting his previous low score on the Stadium Course by a stroke. He honed in his iron shots, fine-tuned his putter and was so hot through 12 holes that it looked as if he might challenge the Stadium Course record at TPC Sawgrass.

“I wish I could repeat it more often, but honestly it was just a better start,” Woods said. “I got off to a much better-quality start.”

Woods took advantage of warm temperatures, soft greens and little wind by making birdies at three of the first four holes . He drained putts of 15, 5, 10 and 17 feet, regaining a scoring touch that eluded him last week at the Wells Fargo Championship and in the opening two rounds in Ponte Vedra Beach.

“Eventually I was going to put all the pieces together and today, for the most part, I did that,” he said. “I hit a lot of good, quality shots. I hit some shots in the correct spots, which was nice. I hit probably three of the best long irons I’ve hit all week.”

Woods will be paired with Jordan Spieth for the final round on Sunday and will start the day 11 shots behind Webb Simpson.