PLAYERS Championship: Inside the third round

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You didn't hear about the snowstorm that hit TPC Sawgrass Saturday? Neither did we. Credit this shot to an infrared camera.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Analysis, notes and numbers from Saturday's third round of THE PLAYERS Championship:

FIVE OBSERVATIONS

1. Sitting and moving: Apparently, the best way to move up the leaderboard at THE PLAYERS Championship is to get off the golf course as quickly as possible. That's what Tiger Woods did Saturday. When he finished his 2-under 70, he was tied for seventh. Two hours later, he found himself in the final twosome with Alex Cejka. It was pretty amazing to see Woods' name climb up the leaderboard without him hitting a single shot.. -- Brian Wacker

2. Minus the A game?: Tiger Woods plodded -- his word -- along with his B or B- minus game Saturday, missing fairways, finding a few miracles ... and suddenly he's reminding us Alex Cejka is going to need every one of those five shots he has on the field. Can Tiger win his second PLAYERS coming from behind without his A game? If you don't think so, you don't know Tiger. Or golf. Think Bay Hill a few weeks ago.. -- Melanie Hauser

3. Opposite approaches: Alex Cejka is playing a different game than his pursuers -- and we're not saying that just because he leads by five shots. Consider: Cejka has played the par 3s and par 4s in a collective 9 under, and is just 2 under on the par 5s. Meanwhile, the six players in second place are a collective even par on the par 3s and 4s and 35 under on the par 5s. Only Ian Poulter is flourishing better on something other than par 5s; he's 5 under on the par 4s this week. -- Mike McAllister

4. Kudos to Perry: Perseverance is the word that springs to mind when it comes to Kenny Perry, who's tied for 11th. He was in the final group on Sunday at THE PLAYERS last year and shot an 81. Did he hang his head? Not at all. He added four wins to his resume in the ensuing 12 months and became a Ryder Cup hero. Then, a month ago, some doubted if he'd ever recover after losing the Masters in a playoff. But Perry shot a 68, Saturday's low round, to sit just outside the top 10. Despite heartbreak on and off the course -- his thoughts on Mother's Day will be with his mom, Mildred, who is battling cancer -- Perry hasn't let it affect his game. -- Lauren Deason

5. Forget the bad ones: Ben Crane has been working with his sports psychologist on how to forget about a bad shot and move on. For Crane on Saturday, that meant an eagle-par-birdie finish that salvaged a round heading south fast and got him back into the tie at 6 under. All the contenders will need to forgot bad shots on Sunday. The Stadium Course played to more than 1.6 strokes over par in the third round, and it's only going to get tougher. The greens are baked and rolling 12 on the Stimpmeter. To expect perfection -- or anything close -- is foolish. The winner will be the one who overcomes adversity the best.. -- Helen Ross

Bomber Report

Longest drives Longest putts Player Hole Length Player Hole Length Ryan Moore 7 339 yards Fred Funk 8 68 feet, 11 inches Jason Dufner 18 332 yards Heath Slocum 14 62 feet, 3 inches Bubba Watson 14 331 yards Tiger Woods 6 47 feet, 10 inches Angel Cabrera 5 329 yards Zach Johnson 3 42 feet, 3 inches Boo Weekley 1 329 yards Kevin Sutherland 17 40 feet, 4 inches

Revealing comments

Alex Cejka Even-par 72 "I was trying to hang in there like a pit bull in the double digits, so I'm pleased." Kevin Na 2-over 74 "I was trying to get paired with Tiger, so I could have front-row seats to maybe watch him win." Tiger Woods 2-under 70 "It's playing like a major championship. It's fast, it's hard, it's dry. And you just have to keep plodding along." Henrik Stenson 1-over 73 "From where I am, I definitely see myself having to shoot under par tomorrow to have a chance to win." Ian Poulter 3-over 75 "It's going to be a difficult day for Alex tomorrow. He's playing with Tiger. He's got a five-shot lead. He's going to be having dinner tonight thinking 11 under par should be good enough."

THIS AND THAT

• Early starters: Only five sub-70 scores were posted on Saturday ... and none of them came from one of the final 27 pairings of the day. In fact, no player in the final eight groups could even shoot under par.

• Keep it straight: In two of the past three years, one of the key stats for winning THE PLAYERS has been driving accuracy. A year ago, Sergio Garcia led the field with 76.79 percent accuracy off the tee. In 2006, Stephen Ames was tied in driving accuracy with 75 percent. This week, tournament leader Alex Cejka currently is tied for first with Billy Mayfair at 83.3 percent accuracy.

• Eagle-fest at 15: Jason Bohn holed out a 148-yard shot for eagle at the par-4 15th Saturday, the second eagle recorded at the hole this week (Scott Verplank holed out from 141 yards on Thursday). Before this week, the 15th had allowed just two eagles since THE PLAYERS moved to TPC Sawgrass in 1982.

• 17th update: Just four balls found the water on the 17th hole Saturday. That ties for the second lowest one-day total since ShotLink began tracking that information in 2003..

• From our friends at Elias: Alex Cejka is tied for third in scoring on the par 3s with an average score of 2.75 and he leads the field in par-4 scoring with a 3.8. In the past 25 years, four players have been in the top three in both categories and led the field through three rounds at The PLAYERS Championship. Only one of the four players has gone on to win the championship, Adam Scott in 2004.