Sean O’Hair will be paired with Tiger Woods in the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, but holding a five-shot lead over the defending champion and world number one.
O’Hair, who also played with Woods on the final day of the tournament last season, carded a one-over 71 in gusting winds to be seven-under overall after three rounds. Woods matched him to be two-under and in serious contention for the first time since his comeback from knee surgery. “Obviously a five-shot lead is great,” O’Hair told Press Association. “Bbut I’m not going to focus on my lead, I’m not going to focus on the fact that I’m leading a golf tournament. “The fact of the matter is there’s one more round of golf in this event, and I’m going to focus on it like I would Thursday.” Woods, building up to the U.S. Masters at Augusta next month, is expecting conditions to remain the same for the final 18 holes. “We’ll see what happens,” Woods said. “It may soften up, the wind may blow, it’s supposed to be a little bit cooler. “We’ll see what happens when we get out here, what kind of conditions we’re going to have, whether we’re able to shoot low scores.” With tournament organizers returning to three-player groups for the final round and off split tees in anticipation of rain and thunderstorms on Sunday, Woods and O’Hair will be joined by former Masters champion Zach Johnson, whose two-under 68 moved him to one under for the tournament. First-round leader Jason Gore will also start at one under alongside Japan’s Ryuji Imada, having finished his third round with a bogey and double bogey on his way to a 74. Imada carded a 73. Last year’s double major champion Padraig Harrington is part of a seven-way tie for 10th place at one over.
