Even his best golf might not have mattered. Woods built a four-shot lead going into the weekend despite some scrappy play off the tee. He sorted that out Saturday, and once the putts started falling, he was on his way.

Phil Mickelson made an early charge with a 30 on the back nine (he started on No. 10) to get within five shots of the lead, but the best he could manage was a 68.

Woods holed a 10-foot birdie on the fourth, and his approach at No. 5 spun back and grazed the edge of the cup for a tap-in birdie. He hit his tee shot on the 212-yard 11th hole to 3 feet, and two-putted for birdie on the 13th, his only look at eagle all week. The only time he flirted with bogey came at the 12th, but he holed a 20-footer for par.

“I’ve only made one bogey,” Woods said, explaining his eight-shot lead on a course where the scores usually are bunched. “I’m sure some guys have made just about the same amount of birdies as I have, but I’ve only dropped one shot.”

Woods and everyone else will find out Sunday whether they play, but even if the fourth round can’t finish until Monday, that might bring another omen to the world’s No. 1 player.

The last time a PGA Tour course held the U.S. Open — the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am — Woods won that on a Monday. But he had to rally from a five-shot deficit that year. This was a runaway impressive even by Woods’ standards.

Divots: Streelman made small talk with Woods during the round, even asking for an exemption to the AT&T National at Congressional that Woods hosts in the summer. “I told him he was playing well enough that he could earn his way in,” Woods said. ... The last 54-hole event on the PGA Tour was the 2005 BellSouth Classic, the week before the Masters. ... The only 54-hole event Woods has won was the 1997 Mercedes Championships up the road at La Costa.

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