By Alex Myers
Tiger Woods’ six Saturday birdies moved him briefly into a tie for the lead on Saturday at the 147th Open Championship. But it was a closing par that wound up being the highlight of his round, and what kept him in contention at Carnoustie heading into Sunday.

After climbing to the top of the leaderboard less than an hour before, Woods was in serious danger of dropping at least two shots over his final three holes as his tee shot on No. 18 headed left toward the Barry Burn. A fortuitous bounce kept it in the high fescue and after Woods laid up with his second, he still faced a difficult up and down from about 80 yards. Then, he did this:

“That was big for me just to not finish with two bogeys on the last three holes, playing as well as I did,” Woods said. “As I said, I really didn’t hit a bad shot until 18. I lay up, which is perfect, up the left side, so I had an angle at that flag, only had 83 yards. I figured just this nice little one like I practised in the backyard, and I hit my number.”

So maybe it wasn’t that brilliant of a shot. If you’re Tiger Woods, that is. And you have your own backyard practice facility. But if you don’t, well, yeah, that was pretty good.