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ORLANDO - World golf No 1 Tiger Woods joined four opponents in first place at the Arnold Palmer Invitational after a round of four-under-par 66 today.
Woods, looking for his ninth win in 10 tournaments, began the day seven shots off the lead but ended on six-under with
Sean O'Hair, winner at Tampa Bay last week, who fired the best round of the tournament with his 63.
Bart Bryant produced his third consecutive 68 to join the leading pack along with Bubba Watson and overnight leader and defending champion Vijay Singh.
Singh, who began today on nine-under, had an eventful round with two bogeys and a double bogey inside his first seven holes but he recovered slightly to finish with a 73.
Singh's topsyturvy round was summed up by his performance on the par four 16th.
Like a number of players he found water with his drive towards the green but after his drop he pitched in magnificently from the edge of the lake to save par.
But, once again, the outcome of this contest is in the hands of Woods.
A four-time winner, he had struggled with his putting yesterday, frequently ending short.
But he was back to his clinical self with six birdies in difficult conditions with gusty winds, the highlights being two superb fairway shots for birdies on the tricky 15th and 16th, both par fours.
"I'm back in the tournament. It is nice to have go out there and play a good round of golf and win the tournament instead of having to play a great round of golf to hopefully get myself back in the mix," Woods said.
"I did the work today to get myself back in the tournament. It is wide open and a bunch of guys have a chance. If the wind blows like it did today then it will be very interesting tomorrow."
O'Hair said he had struggled this week due to fatigue but had found his freshness just in time to make a bid for a second successive tour win.
"Mentally, I was just a little bit drained. Last week was a tough week, such a grind with the weather and the course. I didn't practise on Friday though and I feel a lot more rested and that helped me out," he said.
Hunter Mahan was a shot behind the leaders and then five players, including Nick Watney who had led before a quadruple bogey on the 16th and Britain's Lee Westwood, were two off the lead on four-under.
Watney fired two eagles and was five-under after 12 holes and leading on nine-under overall before a horrendous handling of the par-four 16th.
The American hit his tee shot out of bounds suffering a penalty stroke and then he hit the water and ended up with a quadruple bogey eight.
"Overall it was a good round, I am closer to the lead than I was, I just had a very unfortunate hole," he said.
- REUTERS