LEMONT, Ill. -- Tiger Woods dropped his 3-wood in disgust after his first tee shot yesterday sailed left into the bunker for another sloppy bogey. Four hours later, he finished off his best round of the year to build a seven-shot lead in the BMW Championship.
Getting better with every shot, Woods broke the course record at Cog Hill with a nine-under 62 and blew away the 68-man field in the third FedEx Cup playoff event.
He also tied the tournament record, set last year by Jim Furyk outside St. Louis at Bellerive.
"After I got past the first hole I was doing all right," Woods said. "It was one of those days that kind of built upon itself."
A course renovated by Rees Jones with hopes of landing a U.S. Open was no match for Woods. He hit his most unheralded shot of the round, a 7-iron that stopped three feet away from a dangerous pin at the par-3 sixth, and never came close to missing another green.
The signature shot was his 3-wood from just over 300 yards to 10 feet at the par-5 ninth for an eagle, so pure that the gallery crammed into the bleacher rose to its feet when the ball finally stopped rolling.
Woods was at 16-under 197 and had his largest lead on the PGA Tour since he was eight shots in front in the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines early last year.
He will play in the final pairing today with Brandt Snedeker, who had a 66. Marc Leishman had a 68 and joined Snedeker at nine-under 204, both of them hopeful of finishing high enough to get into the Tour Championship.
More than being his lowest round of the year, Woods was nearly nine shots better than the field, which averaged 70.71.
LPGA
ROGERS, Ark. -- Song-Hee Kim leads the P&G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship by two strokes over Angela Stanford heading into the final round.
Kim shot a three-under 68 yesterday and is at nine under par for the tournament. Stanford shot a 69. Na Yeon Choi shot a 65 for the day's low round and was tied for third with two other players, a stroke behind Stanford.
Kim hit only six of 13 fairways in the second round.
Walker Cup
ARDMORE, Pa. -- The United States team provided coach Buddy Marucci the strong singles start he hoped for before stumbling and letting Britain and Ireland back in contention at the Walker Cup.
The Americans moved closer to winning their third straight Walker Cup behind the strong play of Rickie Fowler yesterday, taking an 8-4 lead over Great Britain and Ireland at Merion Golf Club.
European Tour
COLOGNE, Germany -- Peter Hanson of Sweden leads three players by one stroke at the Mercedes-Benz Championship after shooting a five-under 67.
Hanson was at 11-under 205 after beginning the round three shots behind Scott Strange of Australia and Chris Wood of England.
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victory on the European Tour.
Simon Dyson of England (68), Soren Hansen of Denmark (70) and James Kingston of South Africa (70) are at 206.-- Sun wire services
GOLF
Wrapup of yesterday's action
