Tiger Woods at Quicken Loans National 2015: Saturday Leaderboard Score, Reaction

Tiger Woods entered Saturday's third round of the Quicken Loans National tied for fifth place with a great chance to position himself for a victory, but an awful showing severely damaged his chances.

The 14-time major champion shot a three-over 74, which put him in a tie for 42nd place at five under and left him nine strokes behind leaders Troy Merritt, Kevin Chappell and Rickie Fowler for the tournament when his round concluded. Here is a look at the current leaderboard from Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia:

After going on birdie binges in the first and second rounds, Woods struggled mightily to put circles on his scorecard Saturday. Over the course of 18 holes, his third round played out as follows:

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Out
Hole	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	In
Par	4	4	4	3	5	4	4	5	3	36
Round 3	4	4	4	3	5	4	4	6	3	37
Overall	-8	-8	-8	-8	-8	-8	-8	-7	-7	-7
Par	4	3	4	4	5	4	3	4	4	35
Round 3	4	5	4	5	5	3	2	4	5	37
Overall	-7	-5	-5	-4	-4	-5	-6	-6	-5	-5

There was no shortage of excitement leading up to Tiger's tee time, as he hadn't put himself in such a favorable spot entering the weekend at a tournament in two years, per ESPN Stats & Info:

According to Golf Channel's Tiger Tracker, every indication was that Woods was in fine form prior to the start of the round:

Tiger's opening seven holes were nondescript, as he parred them all; however, it certainly seemed as though trouble was on the horizon. As ESPN.com's Jason Sobel pointed out, the 39-year-old legend had an extremely difficult time off the tee:

Woods was akin to Houdini, as he somehow managed to avoid blemishes to his scorecard, but that changed on the par-five eighth when he carded a bogey. He finished the front nine at one over for the day, but things got worse on the back end.

Tiger double-bogeyed the par-three 11th before posting a bogey on the par-four 13th, which left him at four over for the day with five holes remaining.

As observed by ESPN's Jason Whitlock, Woods' inability to string together strong rounds of golf continued:

The Cypress, California, native finally earned a positive result on the 15th hole when he rolled in this birdie putt, courtesy of the PGA Tour's official Twitter account:

He then followed that up with his best shot of the day, as he put his tee shot on the par-three 16th just inches from the hole before tapping in for birdie:

That was undone on the 18th, however, when Tiger posted a bogey to close out his round. 

Saturday's round was disappointing for many reasons, but especially because of the fact that Woods seemed to think he was turning the corner after making changes to his swing, per Sobel:

"

As I've said, I have been through this before. When you make changes to the game, it takes a little time sometimes and you've got to be patient with it. I know what I'm doing out there. It's just a matter of time before things start to click in. That takes time. That's not going to happen overnight. People want the immediate fix, the one tip that's going to work for the rest of their life. It doesn't work that way. Takes time to build it.

"

Tiger's comments certainly resonate after the third round, as it's clear he still needs more time to fine-tune his game before becoming competitive in important tournaments again.

Woods has had his ups and downs over the past couple of years, and the Quicken Loans National has been a microcosm of that so far. Despite his inconsistent play, Tiger has managed to remain even-keeled through it all, according to Sobel:

While Woods seemed to be trending in the right direction after two rounds, the third round didn't go his way. He did make a couple of great shots down the stretch, though, and if he is able to build off of them, then he has a chance to at least be a factor at the PGA Championship in two weeks.

It isn't yet realistic to expect him to contend for a major, since he showed once again Saturday that he still can't put together four solid rounds. But there are more positives than there were following the British Open.

If Tiger can put his third-round struggles behind him, finish strong Sunday and end up with a decent placement, then there may once again be reason for golf fans to be cautiously optimistic about his game.

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