Tiger Woods falls back after 73

Defending champion Tiger Woods, who struggled for accuracy all day off the tee, produced a roller-coaster two-over-par 73 in the British Open's third round on Saturday to slide back down the leaderboard.

The 25-year-old American, chasing a sixth title in his last eight major championships, mixed three birdies with three bogeys and a double-bogey seven as he finished at one-under 212 after 54 holes, five shots behind the leaders.

He got to five-under twice early in his round, following birdies at four and six, to close to within two shots of Colin Montgomerie's overnight lead, but wayward driving off the tee ultimately cost him dear.

"It definitely wasn't my A-game, not even close to that," Woods said. "I just didn't hit the ball the way I needed to, especially off the tees.

"I wasn't feeling comfortable with my swing today and unfortunately it showed.

"It was a frustrating round for me because I had it going early for a while and got to five-under but then hit a couple of 'squirrly' shots and had a couple of unplayable lies."

The world number one, three-under after two rounds, got off to a flying start with a birdie at the par-three first, hitting a seven iron to 30 feet and calmly sinking the monster putt.

He then got to five-under when he holed a birdie putt from 20 feet at the fourth.

Woods gave this shot back immediately, though, at the short fifth when his tee shot finished in the right rough from where he was unable to get up and down.

The American recovered with his third birdie of the day at the 494-yard sixth, despite once again hitting a wayward drive off the tee. He was fortunate, however, to find a favourable lie in the trampled rough and promptly hit his second to 20 feet and two-putted.

But he found trouble at the 557-yard seventh where he pushed his drive right into some heather.

After hitting his second into an unplayable lie, he was forced to take a penalty drop, eventually running up an ugly double-bogey seven to slip back to three under overall.

Pars at eight and nine gave him an outward nine of level-par 35, keeping him at three-under for the championship.

Although Woods found the crowd from the tee on 11 and the sand at the short 12th, he managed to retrieve pars on both occasions.

He dropped another shot at the par-four 14th, though, after three-putting and he collected his third bogey of the day at the last when he buried his tee shot in trees to the right.

After taking a penalty drop, he found the green with his third but was unable to one-putt for par.

Woods, who won last year's British Open at St Andrews by eight shots after posting four rounds in the sixties, said he was banking on some help from the elements for the last day at Lytham.

"There are a lot of players between myself and the lead and it is going to be quite a test tomorrow," he said.

"Hopefully I can get off to a good start, but I do need some help from the weather. I need to have the weather pretty tough tomorrow so that it will be hard for the leaders to go low." .

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