Woods well on course for win in Japan

Tiger Woods is within sight of his first title since February after extending his lead at the top of the Dunlop Phoenix leaderboard to 10 strokes with a five-under 65 in Miyazaki, Japan today.

Woods went into the third round up by three, but five birdies at the Phoenix Country Club put him within sight of his first triumph in Japan.

The American is now on 13 under, well ahead of Japanese duo Ryoken Kawagishi and Joe Ozaki, and Sweden’s Daniel Chopra, who are all on three under.

Japan’s Kaname Yokoo, who started the day three strokes behind Woods, stumbled to three over for the day, putting him on two under overall, level with Hideto Tanihara.

Woods, who has played three times in Japan, looked at ease as he birdied two of the first three holes to move clear of the chasing pack, and his successful day culminated in a magnificent birdie on the 560-yard par-five 18th hole.

The red-hot display from Woods will have given him a major boost after he lost his number one world ranking spot to Vijay Singh two months ago.

Christian Pena, who was well placed for a challenge after a 63 on Friday put him on two under, had a terrible day, recording a three-over par to drop to joint-seventh on the leaderboard.

He is tied with Takuya Taniguchi, Katsumasa Miyamoto, Kyoung-Ju Choi and Robert Allenby on one under.

Meanwhile defending champion Thomas Bjorn of Denmark shot a 69, leaving him tied for 20th place at three over.