Frustrated Woods labours to 73 at Sawgrass

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida, May 13 (Reuters) Tiger Woods's woes continued when he battled to a one-over-par 73 in the Players Championship third round.

It was his fifth successive score above par at the tournament unofficially dubbed the fifth major and left him 14 strokes behind fellow American Sean O'Hair, who grabbed a one-shot lead late in the day with a sparkling 66.

Erratic off the tee, Woods again struggled with his putter and declined to speak to reporters after finishing in a tie for 64th on five-over 221 at the Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass yesterday.

Swede Henrik Stenson, his playing partner for the third day in a row, felt Woods had been let down mainly by his driving.

''He was having a rough day,'' said Stenson after charging into a tie for 16th at two under with a 66.

''We all know how hard that is and he hasn't played at his best this week, of course he's frustrated.

''He was hitting good putts but they just didn't go in the hole and also he hit a couple of wayward drives. It's kind of hard to get a good score going if the putts don't drop.'' HIGHEST TALLY Nine strokes off the pace at the start of the day after narrowly making the cut, Woods missed eight fairways out of 14 and needed 32 putts, his highest tally of the week.

He double-bogeyed the par-four seventh after his tee shot ended up in water and ran up two bogeys along with three birdies.

At one point the world number one was rock bottom among the 79 players who made the cut.

Woods had a chance to finish his round in style after picking up his third shot of the day at the par-five 16th.

However, he missed birdie opportunities from 10 feet at the treacherous par-three 17th and from eight feet at the last.

Fresh from victory at last week's Wachovia Championship, Woods has won nine times on the PGA Tour in his last 12 starts.

Reuters PDS VP0715