Woods in no mood to let Atlanta lead slip

Birdie putts of 14, 27 and two feet in the first seven holes swept Tiger Woods closer to yet another World Golf Championships…

Birdie putts of 14, 27 and two feet in the first seven holes swept Tiger Woods closer to yet another World Golf Championships title in Atlanta today.

The world No 1, five clear of the star-studded field at halfway, looked totally untroubled by early attacks from Sergio Garcia, KJ Choi and Tim Herron.

After Garcia had pitched to within inches of the cup on the 402-yard second at the Capital City Club Crabapple course Woods responded with his first birdie on the next.

And when Choi had birdied the 315-yard fifth while the defending champion failed to get up and down from a greenside bunker, Woods holed from long range on the next to get back into a five-shot advantage.

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At the dogleg seventh he hit his new driver 328 yards into a greenside bunker and splashed out superbly to set up another birdie.

He was 10 under par, while Herron - birdies at the fifth, seventh and eighth for him - was five under, Choi four under and Garcia, compatriot Ignacio Garrido and Vijay Singh three under.

Woods is trying to make it a fantastic eight wins in 15 World Golf Championship starts and also attempting to convert a halfway lead into victory for the 20th time out of 24 on the US Tour.

The two birdies also kept the 27-year-old on course to make it 31 successive rounds of par or better in WGC events, going right back to the 1999 NEC Invitational when he had a one over par closing 71 - and won, almost naturally. Among those trying hard to catch him was England's Paul Casey, who produced a brilliant outward 31, the same as Woods yesterday, to charge from four over to level par, but then bogeyed the 459-yard 10th.

Casey's birdies included one of the 379-yard dogleg seventh, where he unleashed a massive drive to the back of the green - measured at 363 yards - and made three.

The bogey three holes later, though, still left him 10 adrift of Woods joint 10th with playing partner Padraig Harrington, who was out in 33 and in contrast birdied the 10th.

Justin Rose, the third member of the all-British and Irish group, also turned in 33 before double-bogeying the 10th.

Lee Westwood, playing just behind, was out in 34, but his bogey on the next made him joint 16th on three over, one in front of Ian Poulter.

Darren Clarke appeared to have put Friday's horror 82 - the second highest score of his professional career - with birdies on the 11th and 13th after resuming on the back nine. When he bogeyed the 16th, however, he returned to 10 over.

Padraig Harrington carded a 69, his best round of the tournament so far, but is still a way off the pace on one under par.

That was one better than Scots Colin Montgomerie and Alastair Forsyth, Montgomerie having double bogeys both at the 10th and 12th.