Tiger's in the hunt despite Liberty's undulating greens

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JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- Despite having the most famous caddie in the world carrying his bag, Tiger Woods normally doesn't use Steve Williams to help him read putts. That arrangement, by all accounts, has worked out pretty well for the last 10 years.

"I usually read breaks on my own," Woods said. "It's rare that I call Stevie in.

"Unfortunately, I've called him in a lot this week."

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Leaderboard: Round 3
Round 4 tee times
Scorecard: Paul Goydos
Scorecard: Steve Marino
Live Report: Round 3
Ross: Co-leaders undaunted
Player transcripts
Photos: Round 3

Woods, the FedExCup points leader, has now played 54 competitive holes at Liberty National and remains confounded by the smallish, undulating greens that Tom Kite and Bob Cupp have created. He isn't alone, of course. These greens, with so many wrinkles in them that tournament co-leader Paul Goydos said "look like my shirts after I've packed them," have kept the players in this week's The Barclays off-kilter for three solid days.

Woods has never seen greens like this at a stroke-play event, the kind that offer double-breaks from inside 15 feet. The Links at Fancourt, which hosted the 2003 Presidents Cup in South Africa, has similar movement in its greens. But, as Tiger pointed out, "that's match play. Who really cares, if it's match play? When you're playing stroke play, it's two totally different deals."

And not even the eyes of this Tiger have figured them out.

Take his nine-foot birdie putt at the par-4 15th. He thought the putt would break left, so he aimed inside right. Instead, the ball moved back to the right. "I didn't see that at all," Woods said. "A lot of putts were like that."

Like the nine-foot eagle putt at the par-5 sixth that unexpected broke up the hill. In fact, that 7-10 foot range has been particularly troublesome for Woods this week; he's made only one of eight putts from that distance. The longer distances, in fact, didn't seem to be as much of a problem for him Saturday, as he made putts from 11 feet, 17 feet and two 13 footers.

Yes, you could argue that seeing a course for the first time might be the cause of those misses. But Woods discounts that theory.

"We as professionals play all around the world and we are used to playing a golf course for the first time," he said. "But we've never played a golf course with this much movement."

So he's having trouble reading the greens ... and yet there Tiger sits, 4 under for the tournament after Saturday's 4-under 67, tied for seventh. That's just close enough to the leaders -- five shots ahead -- to make them nervous.

Make that extremely nervous, especially if Woods can figure out the greens, because that's really the only thing keeping him from being at the top of the leaderboard. He's been solid with the driver, missing just 11 of 42 fairways. He has his irons dialed in; he's tied for fifth in the field in greens hit in regulation.

The problem for Woods, though, is that if he's in contention down the stretch, he could be in big trouble when he reaches the 18th tee. If the tee is up like it was on Saturday -- the hole played at 453 yards instead of its 508 on the scorecard -- then that presents a problem.

"Driver is too much club, and I've got to take something off the driver or 3-wood, and I'm still going to leave myself a long iron in there," Woods said. "It's an awkward tee shot for me."

Indeed. On Thursday, his tee shot landed in the primary rough, just missing the multiple bunkers that line the landing area on the right. On Friday, his tee shot found one of those bunkers. So did his tee shot on Saturday. Three drives, and he has yet to land in the fairway. Three approach shots, and two have landed in the rough.

And yet he's only bogeyed the hole once. Typical Tiger-- he manages to avoid bogeys even when holes aren't to his liking.

This week, it's the greens that don't appear to be to his liking. But perhaps his par-saving 13-foot putt on the 18th is just the confidence builder that he needs to make a run at Goydos and co-leader Steve Marino.

One problem -- those greens won't be any flatter on Sunday.

"These greens," Tiger said, "are just ... so different."

That's putting it mildly.