Golf: Tiger Woods eased into contention on day three of the AT&T National at Congressional - but there was nobody there to see it.
The storms that have battered the mid-Atlantic left the Maryland course unsafe for spectators, so Woods was not accompanied by his usual whoops and cheers as he carded a four-under 67 to sit six under overall, one behind leader Brendon de Jonge.
His round was matched by playing partner Bo Van Pelt who also finished on six under for a share of second, as did South Korea's Noh Seung-yul after a two-under 69.
Overnight leader Hunter Mahan could only manage a two-over 73 to finish the day five under in joint fifth, alongside Billy Hurley III who carded a best-of-the-day 66.
Jhonattan Vegas of Venezuela was on his own on four under.
Woods was bogey-free for his round, which included birdies at the first, third, sixth and 10th, and he used only five putts over the first six holes.
The unusual conditions did not seem to adversely affect Woods, but Van Pelt joked: "I told Tiger that was a Bo Van Pelt crowd, so I was used to that. I was very comfortable with 10 or 15 people watching me play golf."
Van Pelt also did not drop a shot, carding four birdies all on the front nine.
"It was nice to just get it in," Van Pelt said on www.pgatour.com. "I think we're all fortunate that nobody got hurt out here last night.
"It's a credit to the ground staff that they got this golf course ready. I'm sure if you saw pictures of what it looked like at midnight the fact that we played golf today is a minor miracle."
Zimbabwean De Jonge, who birdied the second, sixth and 12th, could have had a two-stroke lead but for a bogey on 14.
Defending champion Nick Watney was two under to sit five off the pace, one ahead of England's Greg Owen who went round in 67 today.
Scotland's Martin Laird finished the day one over, one stroke ahead of Englishman Brian Davis.
Collated third round scores & totals in the USPGA Tour AT&T National, Congressional G & CC, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
(USA unless stated, par 71):
206Brendon De Jonge 68 69 69
207Seung-yul Noh (Kor) 70 68 69, Tiger Woods 72 68 67, Bo Van Pelt 67 73 67
208Hunter Mahan 70 65 73, Billy Hurley III 69 73 66
209Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) 71 70 68
210Pat Perez 69 69 72, Robert Garrigus 70 67 73, Ryan Palmer 74 67 69, John Mallinger 70 72 68
211Nick Watney 70 72 69, Vijay Singh (Fij) 68 70 73, Charley Hoffman 72 68 71, Marc Leishman (Aus) 70 70 71, Sang-moon Bae (Kor) 75 68 68, Jason Day (Aus) 69 72 70, Chez Reavie 72 72 67
212Adam Scott (Aus) 75 67 70, Greg Owen (Eng) 70 75 67, Stewart Cink 70 68 74, Sean O'Hair 73 72 67, Jimmy Walker 68 69 75, Brandt Jobe 70 72 70, John Huh (Kor) 72 73 67, Troy Matteson 73 70 69, Daniel Summerhays 70 73 69
213Rodney Pampling (Aus) 71 67 75
214Martin Laird (Sco) 72 69 73, Patrick Cantlay 72 71 71
215Brian Davis (Eng) 74 69 72, Bud Cauley 73 71 71, Kyle Stanley 72 75 68, Greg Chalmers (Aus) 72 71 72, Cameron Tringale 74 65 76
216Jeff Overton 79 69 68, Brian Harman 72 73 71, Heath Slocum 76 70 70
217Dustin Johnson 70 76 71, Bobby Gates 74 68 75, Roberto Castro 74 73 70, Kevin Chappell 72 73 72, Charles Howell III 70 73 74
218K.T. Kim (Kor) 72 74 72, Martin Flores 75 71 72, Erik Compton 73 73 72, Harris English 71 74 73, Ricky Barnes 74 72 72, Ben Crane 77 70 71, George McNeill 73 72 73, Andres Romero (Arg) 73 71 74, D.J. Trahan 75 72 71
219Bryce Molder 78 69 72, Will Claxton 73 75 71, James Driscoll 70 76 73, Graham Delaet (Can) 74 74 71, Blake Adams 72 75 72, Charlie Wi (Kor) 70 75 74, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 74 68 77, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 72 74 73, Hunter Haas 74 72 73
220Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 74 73 73, Jim Furyk 73 73 74, J.J Killeen 72 75 73, Y.E. Yang (Kor) 76 72 72
221Brendan Steele 71 76 74, Bob Estes 74 74 73, Chris Di Marco 76 71 74, Brendon Todd 72 76 73, Gary Woodland 72 74 75, Ben Curtis 74 74 73, William McGirt 72 76 73, Ryan Moore 73 75 73
-----------------------------Made Cut Did Not Finish--------------------------------------------------
222Justin Leonard 75 71 76, Arjun Atwal (Ind) 76 72 74, Beau Hossler 71 74 77, Davis Love III 70 76 76
223J.B. Holmes 72 70 81, Vaughn Taylor 71 76 76
224J J Henry 77 71 76
