Woods still the one to catch

US PGA Championship: Those in pursuit may have cut into Tiger Woods' overnight lead but Pádraig Harrington and the rest will have to outscore the world number one in the final round if they are to stop him collecting his 15th major title at the US PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minnesota.

Defending champion Harrington was both patient and aggressive during his third round and at one point had drawn level with Woods at the top on seven under. However, Woods played a patient game of his own while the Dubliner closed out with a bogey at the 18th which means Woods will take a two shot lead into the final round.

Woods shot a “conservative” one-under 71 for an eight-under-par 208 aggregate to be two ahead of Harrington, who carded a 69, and Korea’s YE Lang, who shot the low round of the day 67.

“I was just trying to stay patient all day. There were a lot of lag putts out there today, I played conservative,” remarked a satisfied Woods after his round.

“Other than that I played a pretty good round. I can relax now, get a bit to eat and put the feet up and see what happens tomorrow,” added Woods, who had two birdies and one bogey on his card.

There was a danger the final major of the year would turn into a procession with Woods at the top and holding a four stroke advantage. Irish bookmaker Paddy Power had already paid out on Woods, such was their confidence of him winning. However Harrington ensured Woods would not have it all his own way.

The triple major winner parred the opening six holes before the putter started to fire. Four birdies in the next eight holes moved him alongside Woods, who was unable to advance from seven-under.

However, the Dubliner’s undoing came at the 18th where he made his only bogey of the day when he missed the green left just as the thunderstorms started to roll in.

“I was more disappointed with my approach at 15, I didn’t really focus on it enough,” said Harrington who only made par at the par five when he was in line for a birdie.

“At 18 things like that happen, but it was still a bit of a surprise.”

The stats later revealed that Harrington has played 34 rounds at the PGA and never recorded a bogey-free round.

“We could definitely hear the thunder storms around us,” he added. “We were anxious to get finished because the last thing we wanted was to come back tomorrow and just have a putt.

“I’m still well in the hunt and have to just concentrate on my own game.

“No one likes to give Tiger a lead. I’ll have to dig deep and I look forward to the challenge.”

There was small progress made by the two other Irish players still in the field as Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell both shot 71 to be inside the top 20 on one-under and level par respectively.

“It wasn’t as windy today, scoring was easier. I could have been a couple better but anything under par is good,” said McDowell.

Rory McIlroy made great strides with four birdies and just one dropped shot in his first 10 holes to be three-under.

However, in the latter stages of his round the 20-year-old picked up bogeys at 13 and 15 and dropped back to the same mark as McDowell on one-under after he too shot 71.

Harrington and Yang are two shots ahead of US Open champion Lucas Glover (71) and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson (68). Glover is trying to become only the sixth player to win the US Open and PGA in the same year