Woods closes to within 1 shot of Canadian rookie Conners

Tiger Woods contributed from behind the ninth green and the thunder was unmistakable, the tree-rattling assortment that has a place with just a single player in golf. Minutes after the fact, Woods brought the putter up in his left hand as another birdie putt dropped for an offer of the lead at the Valspar Championship. 

Corey Conners heard the entire round and it influenced him to grin. 

Don't worry about it that Conners had six birdies in his round of 3-under 68 for a one-shot lead Saturday as he tries for his first PGA Tour triumph. 

Indeed, even the players endeavoring to pound Woods got cleared in the feelings of seeing him nearer than at any other time to having an opportunity to win once more. 

"I can affirm he's back. The thunders are back," said Brandt Snedeker, who was curious to see what happens with Woods and coordinated his 67. "It's enjoyable to hear the group going insane again and acknowledge how energized we are in having him retreat here and play the way he is. He's playing awesome." 

Conners, the Canadian youngster in just his seventeenth begin on the PGA Tour as a genius, spared standard from the dugout on the standard 3 seventeenth and kept his cool when his ball moved somewhat on the eighteenth green — no longer a punishment in those conditions — before he tapped in for standard. 

He was at 9-under 204 and will play with Justin Rose (66), who joined Woods and Snedeker at one shot behind. For the second in a row day, Woods and his tons of fans will be in front of him. 

So he at any rate recognizes what's in store. 

"I sort of realized what was happening without seeing it," Conners said. "Yet, it will be cool. It's fun seeing him out there today, and I'm certain he'll be doing combating hard tomorrow. Be that as it may, ideally, I can play my amusement and have a decent day." 

Conners grinned when he heard the cheer for Woods when he contributed at No. 9. 

For such huge numbers of years, such a thunder caused significantly more frustration than festivity among whatever remains of the field. Conners grew up venerating Woods for his 14 majors and 79 triumphs on the PGA Tour, and it was hard not to become involved with so much madness. 

Conners still settled himself with a wedge he almost holed on No. 9 for his very own birdie. 

Woods looked just as he may seize control after his birdie on No. 10 to achieve 8 under, tied for the lead. 

He hit wedge into 7 feet beneath the opening on the standard 5 eleventh, and another thunder ejected. Woods missed. 

Moving toward the twelfth, where four little grandstands secured by tents and an expansive show off to one side of the green were loaded with fans who were searching for motivations to let free. Anything on the green would have gotten the job done, and Woods played it past the stick and utilized the slant to get this show on the road back to 8 feet. 

Now, the exhibition was so dazed they couldn't adjust their serenades. Some were shouting, "Tiger! Tiger!" Others were shouting, "U-S-A!" Most were simply shouting. And after that Woods missed once more. 

He dropped his exclusive shot on the following opening when his tee shot cruised over the green into tangled, thin grass where the exhibition had been standing. He exposed a heave wedge and swung hard on an extreme flounder shot, just to miss the mark and into the shelter. About the time he was dropping a shot, Conners was over the lake at No. 12 and came in a 20-foot birdie putt to extend his prompt two shots over Rose, three shots over Woods. 

The greater part of the fans in the cheap seats had their backs swung to watch Woods. It resembled that throughout the day. 

"I was strolling down the 6th and glanced over to the fourth green," Rose said. "I said to my caddie, 'Have you at any point seen those group?' Eight-profound back there. It was a view that unquestionably wouldn't have been the same had he not been playing. He's on the leaderboard and trying for the lead. I believe it's energizing to have him back for the easygoing golf fan, yet now the genuine Tiger fans get energized." 

What's more, that incorporates Woods. 

"I am energized," he said. "I have an inclination that I'm playing somewhat better and more clean. I moved myself up the board. I know it's stuffed up there, yet at any rate I got a shot." 

Woods hasn't won since his seven-shot triumph in the Bridgestone Invitational in August 2013. He hasn't won a competition when trailing going into the last round since the AT&T National at Congressional in 2012. 

It has been a striking come back from his fourth back surgery only 10 months prior. Also, to think five months back, Woods didn't know whether he could ever have the capacity to contend at an abnormal state. He said his specialists had not given him leeway to hit balls. 

What's more, here he is, one shot out of the lead, and realizing that his work isn't finished. 

Rose holed out from 120 yards for hawk on the eleventh gap, included a couple of birdies and got himself into the last gathering with a newbie who so far has demonstrated the balance to shut out everything around him. 

"This lighted it for me," Rose said after watching a replay of his bird. "I was somewhat getting somewhat baffled, seeing the scores were better than average. I required brief comment. I made that one. I putted outrageously well on the back nine. Each putt I had, I thought would go in. Fun day." 

Snedeker, falling off sternum damage that thumped him out of golf for the second 50% of a year ago, was similarly great as the person in his gathering everybody came to see. He twice coordinated birdies with Woods with 12-foot putts, and in the wake of falling two shots behind and the group getting louder by the gap for Woods, Snedeker fought back with a couple of birdies for a 67. 

He will play with Woods again in the last round and realizes what's in store. This will be the fifth time Snedeker has played with Woods this year. 

"Boisterous as I've heard it in quite a while," Snedeker said. 

Source: AP/UNB