After three rounds at the 2020 Farmers Insurance Open, Tiger Woods finds himself tantalizingly close to his record-breaking 83rd PGA Tour victory. But it will take a come-from-behind performance on Sunday to seal the deal.

Woods shot a three-under 69 in Saturday’s third round at Torrey Pines to reach seven under for the tournament. That left him five shots behind leader Jon Rahm, who finished off his round of 65 to get to 12 under. The primary reason for his fortunate positioning was his stellar stretch to open Round 3, which stood in stark contrast to his start on Friday.

In Round 2, Woods opened with a shocking four-putt double bogey on the 1st, a hole that famously tortured him during the 2008 U.S. Open. But the story would be much different on Saturday.

After waiting through a two-hour fog delay Saturday morning, Tiger turned that crooked 6 into a 3, opening with a birdie to move to five under, five shots back of leader Ryan Palmer who had yet to tee off.

Playing in a threesome with Tour newcomers Tyler McCumber and Chris Baker, Tiger had the honors at the 197-yard par-3 3rd hole, and he used it to his advantage by knocking an iron to seven feet, rolling that in for his second birdie in three holes to move to six under.

Things almost fell apart at the 4th hole. The long par-4 is one of the hardest on the course, and it tested Tiger to the limit. His approach went wide right into deep rough above the green. He chunked the chip and watched it roll off the putting surface into more rough. But he holed his chip from 17 feet to save par and keep the momentum going.

After another par, Woods flared his second at the par-5 6th into thick stuff to the left of the green. He did a fine job getting that chip shot to stop 13 feet away from the hole, and then rolled in the remaining putt for his third birdie of the day.

Woods followed that up with two-straight pars on 7 and 8, and then split the fairway with a 304-yard bomb on the par-5 9th. He chose to play it safe and not try and reach in two from 294 yards, and instead hit a layup to set up a wedge into the green.

He landed the ensuing shot on the back of the green, and then spun it back nearly into the hole. Though it was on a perfect line, it didn’t have enough gas, and stopped four feet away. Tiger confidentially holed that one to make the turn at four under on the round, and eight under for the tournament.

The back nine would prove far more difficult for him. He faced his first moment of adversity at the 11th, where he made bogey to fall back to seven under. He would remain there for several holes.

After a routine par at 12, he lost his drive into the left rough, and then sent his layup second shot into the right rough. A poor lie prevented him from getting close with his approach, so he was forced to settle for a two-putt par.

Another missed fairway at 14 left him scrambling, but once again he was able to save par and remain at seven under. Meanwhile, the lead was bouncing back and forth between nine and 11 under, with Palmer and Jon Rahm duking it out several holes behind Woods’ own threesome.

At 17, Tiger hit a poor approach to 40 feet that lead to another two-putt par. His final test of the day was the par-5 18th, a prime opportunity to add one more birdie to his scorecard. But things didn’t go according to plan. He recovered well from a wayward drive into a fairway bunker, laying up his second into the middle of the fairway, and then sent his third over the green into a difficult bunker. The best he could do from there was get it to 15 feet, but he buckled down and buried that one for a closing par.

Thanks to a few mistakes on Tiger’s part and incredible play from Rahm, Woods will need a great round on Sunday to have a chance. To come back from so many shots behind in the final round will be a tall order, but certainly not unthinkable. If he does, he will finally surpass Sam Snead to become the winnigest golfer in PGA Tour history.

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Ryan Palmer shot 62 to vault up the leaderboard on Friday at the Farmers Insurance Open, and Palmer (10 under) heads into the weekend two shots ahead of Brandt Snedeker (eight under). Palmer, Snedeker and J.B. Holmes (seven under) are in the final group on Saturday, teeing off on the South Course at 12:45 p.m. ET.

Tiger Woods is six back after shooting 69-71. He’s grouped with Tyler McCumber and Chris Baker for a 10:55 a.m. ET tee time.

Complete tee times and groupings, as well as the TV schedule for the weekend, are listed below.

Farmers Insurance Open TV schedule (ET)

Saturday: 1-2:45 p.m. (Golf Channel); 3-6 p.m. (CBS)
Sunday: 1-2:45 p.m. (Golf Channel); 3-6:30 p.m. (CBS)

Farmers Insurance Open Round 3 tee times, groupings (ET)

TORREY PINES SOUTH COURSE

1st tee

10:35 a.m. — Jimmy Walker, Joaquin Niemann, Dominic Bozzelli
10:45 a.m. — Ben Taylor, Cameron Percy, Denny McCarthy
10:55 a.m. — Tiger Woods, Tyler McCumber, Chris Baker
11:05 a.m. — Tony Finau, Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama
11:15 a.m. — Joel Dahmen, Scott Stallings, Billy Horschel
11:25 a.m. — Brandon Wu, Mark Anderson, Richy Werenski
11:35 a.m. — Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Lucas Glover
11:45 a.m. — Marc Leishman, Sung Kang, Bubba Watson
11:55 a.m. — Jon Rahm, J.J. Spaun, Sungjae Im
12:05 p.m. — Patrick Rodgers, Stewart Cink, Collin Morikawa
12:15 p.m. — Patrick Reed, Harry Higgs, Cameron Champ
12:25 p.m. — Beau Hossler, Keegan Bradley, Zac Blair
12:35 p.m. — Jhonattan Vegas, Sebastian Cappelen, Matthew NeSmith
12:45 p.m. — Ryan Palmer, Brandt Snedeker, J.B. Holmes

10th tee

10:35 a.m. — Byeong Hun An, Jamie Lovemark, Cameron Smith
10:45 a.m. — Kevin Tway, Max Homa, Jason Dufner
10:55 a.m. — Joseph Bramlett, Cameron Davis, Bill Haas
11:05 a.m. — Martin Laird, Ryan Brehm, Rhein Gibson
11:15 a.m. — Tom Hoge, Harris English, Dylan Frittelli
11:25 a.m. — Matthew Wolff, Maverick McNealy, Chase Seiffert
11:35 a.m. — Talor Gooch, Trey Mullinax, Aaron Baddeley
11:45 a.m. — Jason Kokrak, Kevin Streelman, Pat Perez
11:55 a.m. — Grayson Murray, Robby Shelton, Will Gordon
12:05 p.m. — Cameron Tringale, Doc Redman, Charley Hoffman
12:15 p.m. — John Huh, Xinjun Zhang, Matt Jones
12:25 p.m. — Luke List, Sam Burns
12:35 p.m. — Russell Knox, Zack Sucher

Ryan Palmer put on a ball-striking clinic on the North Course during the second round of the Farmers Insurance Open on Friday, and he’ll take the 36-hole lead heading into the weekend. Here’s everything you missed on Friday at Torrey Pines.

Ryan Palmer surges

No one was hotter than Palmer on Friday. The 43-year-old made 11 birdies and just one bogey en route to a 10-under 62. He turned in five-under 31 and then matched it on the back nine, his only blemish a bogey on the 18th when he couldn’t find the fairway off the tee. Palmer made back-to-back birdies five different times in his round.

“I got hot on that front side and just kind of kept it going,” Palmer told Golf Channel. “Little disappointing to end with a bogey, but you hit it in the rough and you are going to pay for it.”

This is Palmer’s second 62 on the North Course. He also shot that number in the second round at the 2006 Farmers.

Palmer heads into the weekend leading Brandt Snedeker (eight under) by two and four others by three.

Tiger Woods stays in contention

Tiger Woods rebounded from a disastrous start to shoot a one-under 71 on the South Course, and after Thursday’s 69 he’s T17 and four under overall, which is six back of Palmer. Woods is among a group of 21 players at four under, which also includes Bubba Watson, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Hideki Matsuyama.

Woods opened the day by hitting the fairway and green on the par-4 1st, but his par try from inside 3 feet slid by the hole. He missed the come-backer and signed for a four-putt double bogey — just the 13th four-putt of his career. After four straight pars, Woods bounced back with a birdie on 6 and then three straight on 8, 9 and 10. He bogeyed 12 after driving it into a fairway bunker and made another bogey on 17 when his drive found the native area and he had to take a drop. He closed on a strong note, though, making an easy birdie on the par-5 18th. He hit nine fairways, 11 greens and needed 27 putts.

“It was a good middle part of the round,” Woods told reporters afterward. “Not exactly the best of starts, but I figured it out and turned it around. Unfortunately made a mistake on 17 that cost me a shot, but good birdie on 18.”

Woods has won eight times at Torrey Pines, which includes seven Farmers and one U.S. Open (2008).

Big names go home

The 36-hole cut was one under, which means lots of big-time players are leaving Torrey early. Rickie Fowler (E), Xander Schauffele (E), Gary Woodland (+1), Justin Rose (+1), Phil Mickelson (+1) and Francesco Molinari (+2) all missed the cut.

Best shot

Snedeker holed this bunker shot on 15 for his third straight birdie, which at the time tied him with Palmer. He’s eight under overall and in solo second heading into the weekend.

Worst stat

The aforementioned Mickelson is among the marquee players who missed the cut. Mickelson was plagued (again) by his driving accuracy. He hit just 2 of 14 fairways on Friday and 7 of 28 for the week. Mickelson ranked 185th out of 188 on Tour last season in driving accuracy (50.77 percent). He’s back in action at next week’s Saudi International.

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The PGA Tour’s player of the year returns to competitive golf for the first time in 2020 this week, and he does so as the betting favorite. It’s not bad to be Brooks Koep—erm, Rory McIlroy these days, especially following a 2020 campaign that saw him capture a FedEx Cup Title. According to golfodds.com, McIlroy is the odds-on favorite at Torrey Pines for this week’s Farmers Insurance Open — his first stateside appearance since August of 2019 — and is listed at 7/1.

Of course, Torrey Pines is a venue logged in the mental Rolodex of every golf fan for a certain fist-pumping, gobsmacking act of greatness at the 2008 U.S. Open. The protagonist of that act, Tiger Woods, is also in this week’s field and is another one of the betting favorites at 12/1. Woods has won the Farmers Insurance Open seven times and is one victory away from 83 career PGA Tour wins, which would push him past Sam Snead for the most all-time.

Other notables include Jon Rahm, who is second in the field at 9/1, Rickie Fowler is 16/1 and Jordan Spieth is 50/1 in his 2020 debut. You can find odds for the entire field listed below.

Farmers Insurance Open Odds

Rory McIlroy 7/1
Jon Rahm 9/1
Tiger Woods 12/1
Xander Schauffele 16/1
Justin Rose 16/1
Hideki Matsuyama 20/1
Rickie Fowler 20/1
Gary Woodland 25/1
Patrick Reed 30/1
Tony Finau 25/1
Collin Morikawa 30/1
Sungjae Im 30/1
Jason Day 40/1
Brandt Snedeker 40/1
Scottie Scheffler 40/1
Cameron Smith 40/1
Jordan Spieth 50/1
Marc Leishman 50/1
Joaquin Niemann 40/1
Matthew Wolff 60/1
Billy Horschel 60/1
Ryan Palmer 50/1
Francesco Molinari 80/1
Byeong Hun An 80/1
Keegan Bradley 80/1
Cameron Champ 60/1
Bud Cauley 80/1
Russell Knox 80/1
Lanto Griffin 60/1
Jason Kokrak 80/1
Emiliano Grillo 80/1
Phil Mickelson 100/1
Bubba Watson 100/1
Lucas Glover 100/1
Rory Sabbatini 100/1
Harris English 100/1
Joel Dahmen 100/1
Sebastian Munoz 100/1
Brendan Steele 100/1
Denny McCarthy 100/1
Dylan Frittelli 125/1
Sepp Straka 125/1
Pat Perez 125/1
Talor Gooch 125/1
Carlos Ortiz 125/1
Matt Jones 125/1
J.B. Holmes 150/1
Cameron Tringale 150/1
Nick Watney 150/1
Danny Lee 150/1
Sam Burns 150/1
Kyle Stanley 150/1
Cameron Davis 150/1
Sam Ryder 150/1
Tom Hoge 150/1
Jhonattan Vegas 150/1
Beau Hossler 200/1
Maverick McNealy 200/1
Wyndham Clark 200/1
Harold Varner III 200/1
Matthew NeSmith 200/1
Scott Stallings 200/1
Austin Cook 200/1
Sung Kang 200/1
Jimmy Walker 200/1
Kevin Streelman 200/1
Charley Hoffman 200/1
Bronson Burgoon 200/1
Kevin Tway 200/1
Keith Mitchell 200/1
C.T. Pan 200/1
Henrik Norlander 200/1
Grayson Murray 200/1
Michael Thompson 200/1
Luke List 250/1
Max Homa 250/1
Jason Dufner 250/1
Peter Uihlein 250/1
Bill Haas 250/1
Lucas Bjerregaard 250/1
Doc Redman 250/1
D.J. Trahan 250/1
Brandon Wu 250/1
Martin Laird 250/1
Kyoung-Hoon Lee 250/1
Chase Seiffert 250/1
Chesson Hadley 250/1
Patrick Rodgers 250/1
Bo Hoag 250/1
Steve Stricker 300/1
Stewart Cink 300/1
Kramer Hickok 300/1
Patton Kizzire 300/1
Xinjun Zhang 300/1
Harry Higgs 300/1
Zac Blair 300/1
Aaron Baddeley 300/1
J.J. Spaun 300/1
Robert Streb 300/1
Doug Ghim 300/1
Dominic Bozzelli 300/1
Fabian Gomez 300/1
Peter Malnati 300/1
Richy Werenski 300/1
Sebastian Cappelen 300/1
Scott Brown 300/1
Hank Lebioda 300/1
Roger Sloan 300/1
Scott Harrington 300/1
Cameron Percy 300/1
Ted Potter Jr 300/1
John Huh 300/1
Anirban Lahiri 300/1
Rob Oppenheim 300/1
Tim Wilkinson 300/1
Mackenzie Hughes 300/1
Seung-Yul Noh 500/1
Kristoffer Ventura 500/1
Jamie Lovemark 500/1
Chris Stroud 500/1
Wes Roach 500/1
Graham DeLaet 500/1
Tyler McCumber 500/1
Joseph Bramlett 500/1
Robby Shelton 500/1
Trey Mullinax 500/1
Rhein Gibson 500/1
K.J. Choi 500/1
Hunter Mahan 500/1
Michael Gligic 500/1
Mark Anderson 500/1
Will Gordon 500/1
Isaiah Salinda 500/1
Satoshi Kodaira 500/1
Jim Herman 500/1
Justin Suh 500/1
Ryan Brehm 500/1
Brandon Hagy 300/1
Chris Baker 1000/1
Ben Taylor 1000/1
Nelson Ledesma 1000/1
John Senden 1000/1
Vincent Whaley 1000/1
Vince Covello 1000/1
Michael Gellerman 1000/1
Ben Martin 500/1
Kevin Stadler 1000/1
Michael Block 2000/1
Alex Beach 2000/1
Patrick Martin 2000/1
Martin Trainer 2000/1
Zack Sucher 500/1
Harry Hall 500/1
Jacob Bergeron 1000/1
Eddie Olson 2000/1
KK Limbhasut 2000/1

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After a record-tying 82nd win in October and victorious Presidents Cup captaincy in December — not to mention a stone-cold 3-0 playing record — Tiger Woods returns to action this week at the Farmers Insurance Open.

It’s a strong field even without Woods, as Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Jon Rahm, Rickie Fowler and others are teeing it up, but Woods will still steal the majority of the attention. He usually does that anyway, but this week is Torrey Pines — where he’s won eight times as a pro.

But still, there could be some rust. Woods won the Zozo Championship in October and didn’t play again until his unofficial tournament, the Hero World Challenge, in early December. The next week he flew to Australia for the Presidents Cup and, despite playing well, had to sit himself for an entire day when he wasn’t feeling physically ready to play. During his pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday, Woods said he didn’t touch a club for more than two weeks after the Presidents Cup, save for a birthday round with his son on Dec. 30. He then began practicing four or five days later — and testing some new clubs — before he worked his way through his bag leading up to Torrey. But Woods isn’t expecting to be rusty when it comes to hitting shots, more so managing what might affect those shots.

“Managing adrenaline takes a little bit of time,” Woods said, when asked what’s the slowest part of his game to come around when he feels rusty. “I’m so amped up to play that I really have to dumb myself down, to calm myself down to play, because it’s one of the things I’ve always struggled with because I just want to get out there and compete. So sometimes I need to take a step back and calm down before I’m ready.”

“Finding the rhythm of the round, I always say that to you guys, sometimes I find it on the first hole, sometimes it takes as long as three, four, five holes, and by then hopefully I haven’t made too many mistakes on those holes where I can turn a good score in,” he continued. “Sometimes it’s gotten me behind and sometimes I’ve missed cuts because I haven’t been able to find the rhythm of the round fast enough.”

Woods is grouped with Collin Morikawa and Rahm for the first two rounds of the Farmers. They’ll tee off at 12:40 p.m. ET on Thursday and 1:40 p.m. ET on Friday.

Woods needs one more PGA Tour victory to break Sam Snead’s record of 82 PGA Tour titles. After this week’s Farmers he’ll take two weeks off and return as player/host at the Genesis Invitational at Riviera.

“I think that the number, just trying to get to 83, I really don’t think about it because I have to think about all the things I need to do to win the golf tournament,” Woods said. “There’s so many different shots I have to play and strategy and thinking my way around the golf course that I’m more consumed in that.”

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It’s official: Tiger Woods will make his first PGA Tour start of the new year on the familiar fairways of Torrey Pines’ South Course in La Jolla, Calif.

On Thursday, Woods confirmed that he will play the 2020 Farmers Insurance Open, which will be played Jan. 23-26, according a blog post on Woods’ official website.

While the announcement is news, it’s hardly a surprise. Though he hadn’t officially committed to the event publicly until Thursday, most observers assumed Woods would choose to make his first start of 2020 at the Farmers, as he has done for the last three years. Making his decision easier was his long, prolific history of success at the tournament and Torrey’s South Course in general.

Tiger has won the Farmers Insurance Open a record seven times. His first win there came in 1999 when the tournament was known as the Buick Invitational, though he has not finished on top at the Farmers since 2013 when he was in the midst of a five-win season.

His other victory at Torrey Pines was undoubtedly one of his most memorable. At the 2008 U.S. Open, Woods fought through pain from a fractured leg to defeat Rocco Mediate in a 19-hole Monday playoff on the South Course and secure his 14th major title.

Woods also announced that he would play the 2020 Genesis Invitational three weeks after the Farmers. He’s the host of the Genesis, which is operating as an Invitational event for the first time this year.

The Genesis is set to take place at iconic Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, Feb. 13-16.

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