On a day in which Tiger Woods rolled back the years, Webb Simpson needed only to do likewise but with days. The kind of Woods performance which golf cherished as much as its returning hero himself will inevitably count for nothing tangible should Simpson – who is enjoying a comeback of his own – continue apace. Simpson was unlikely to match the Friday heroics which saw him shoot 63 and duly did not.

The 2012 US Open champion had cause to be perfectly content with a 68 on the basis it affords him a seven shot Players Championship lead with only 18 holes to play. Simpson is in the territory whereby conceding this tournament would be wounding enough were it not the PGA Tour’s flagship event. The only apparent danger to the 32-year-old is that he has entered uncharted territory.

Simpson’s 19-under tally has Danny Lee, who carded a Saturday 70, such a distant second he requires binoculars. Dustin Johnson is one adrift of Lee at minus 10. The rest, surely, are playing the tournament within the tournament.

Woods relished this Sawgrass Saturday just as much as those desperate for the 14-times major winner to approach anything like his former self. Maybe all parties needed it; until now, fevered hype around the American amid his latest return from back surgery had not been endorsed by results. Actions will always speak louder than the upbeat words consistently offered by Woods.



A seven-under-par 65 was the highlight of the 42-year-old’s season thus far. The scale of reaction as Woods was in the middle of his charge only served to highlight once again what impact he has on a sport that not so long ago looked like it may have to resign itself to life without him.

He had survived the Players Championship cut by one shot. His third round start suggested he had been offended by that lowly position. Woods birdied four of his first five holes. He reached the turn in 30. By the time he reached the 13th tee, the former world No 1 was eight under par – nine under for the tournament – and broadcasters broke with convention by cutting a deal to begin their live coverage earlier than scheduled.

A bogey at the 14th and four subsequent pars dulled hope of a course record but Woods was purring when assessing his morning’s work. This marked his lowest career round – from 66 – at the Players and best against par in any event since day two of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in 2013.

‘I finally got off to a good start,’ said Tiger Woods. Photograph: USA TODAY Network/Sipa USA/REX/Shutterstock

“I finally got off to a good start,” Woods said. “I birdied the first couple of holes and I just kept it rolling from there. I hit a lot of good shots. It was nice to see a few putts go in; 65 was probably as high as I could have shot, which was kind of nice.

“Eventually I was going to put all the pieces together and today, for the most part, I did that. To be eight-under through 12, realistically I probably could have got a couple more out of it and got to 10 for the day. That wasn’t that bad a tee shot at 14 but I ended up in a spot where I didn’t have much of a shot. I don’t make birdie at 16, 17’s a sand wedge in to the green. But I’ll take it.”

A curious aspect of Woods’s comeback from the depths of physical despair is that even before this performance he was showing a 20-shot improvement over weekend rounds from days one and two. “I wish I knew what the difference was,” he said.

A Saturday quirk related to Jordan Spieth, who had helped his compatriot survive the halfway cut with an 18th-hole bogey on Friday. The Open champion returned to match Woods’s 65. This was highly useful to the mindset of Spieth, who has had a curiously low-key year, save a closing 64 at the Masters that came close to snatching the Green Jacket from Patrick Reed.

As far as Spieth is concerned, improvement with putter in hand will trigger the kind of spectacular run he is capable of. “I didn’t try and do too much, I recognised that my game is actually in a really good place right now,” the three-times major winner said. “Sometimes this game can tear you down and make you think some of the best parts of your game are some of the worst parts of your game when really it’s so close. With the top players there’s such a fine line that it’s always something simple.”

As if to offset any theory the exploits of Woods and Spieth simplified Sawgrass conditions, the PGA champion Justin Thomas had to make do with a 68.