Tiger Woods Is Still Sick; Jordan Spieth, Shoots 63 for 7-Shot Lead

The stories at the top and bottom of the leaderboard at the Hero World Challenge were very different.  At the lowest rung was tournament host, Tiger Woods, fighting nausea and actually vomiting during the third  round. 

"Wasn't easy and I fought hard," Woods said. "That's about all I had." 

At the top was the youngster, Jordan Spieth, who posted his second 63 of the tournament. 

"It was my lowest score for three rounds," Spieth said. "It was a fun round."

One was fatigued, hoarse and fighting a fever. The other was thrilled with a new career achievement. But is the better fighter Woods, who heaved into towels on the fairway but didn't quit, or Spieth with his 63?

"You know me. I like to compete. If I can go, I can go. I'll give it everything I have," Woods croaked more than spoke after play. "I wasn't in pain. Just was a little bit under the weather." It was more than a little bit. Most people would be in bed or sideways on the sofa, chugging Pepto Bismol. 

Spieth had it easier. He began his day with a chip and putt at the 18th to finish the second round. Then he started Round 3 knowing Henrik Stenson and others were looking for him to crack and give them an opening. 

Stenson, paired with the youngster, had a great vantage point to watch Spieth.

"Jordan played fantastic," he said. "He didn't miss too many shots and had some great pitching around the greens and good putts. Extremely solid on his behalf. I don't think anybody is going to catch him tomorrow unless he's having a really bad day. Seems to be a one‑horse race."

Spieth was enthusiastic about his round.

"Got off to a dream start with a 20‑footer and then a good bounce on 2 and a birdie on 3," he said about the early momentum. "From there it was rolling. Played the par‑fives well, which was important. Played the easier holes well other than 16 and was able to hit some wedges in close and play some of the slopes." 

Keegan Bradley pulled himself into a tie for second with a 65, although he's a long way back of Spieth.

"I got to shoot a low one and get some help from Jordan. He's such a good player I don't expect that," Bradley said about his chances on Sunday. 

Spieth continued his stunningly good play leading the Hero World Challenge after winning the Australian Open.

"You see tendencies of guys starting to clean things up," he said about his run of good play. "They go from not playing great to 20th to 13th, to fifth. You know they're going to play well the next week if they continue playing."

He said he was not worried about the jet lag coming back from Australia because he got a lot of sleep, a lot of water and was coming to a course where he had already had success, winning the Isleworth Invitational in 2011 when he was still an amateur.   

"Job is not done this week, but I'm a believer in my own momentum," he added. "I'm going to go out tomorrow with very similar strategy to today. If the putts go and the breaks go my way, hopefully shoot a round like today. If not, I'm still going to have to shoot under par to win this golf tournament."

Tiger Woods, who has won his event five times, will fight on in the final round no matter how he feels.  On Saturday, he turned in his best round of the week, despite his stomach bug, flu or whatever it is he has. He managed four birdies on the back nine, including three-in-a-row at 16,17 and 18. 

"Initially I didn't have the explosiveness," Woods said about the day. "I was just pretty slow. As the round built on I was starting to feel better and started hitting the ball around my normal numbers."

He left the golf course waiting for antibiotics to kick in.

"I'm only 15 back," he joked, because Spieth was still on the course. At the end of the day, Woods was actually 20 behind. 

Kathy Bissell is a Golf Writer for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand or from official interview materials from the PGA Tour, USGA, R&A or PGA of America.