Woods and Rock co-lead after three in Abu Dhabi

Robert Rock and Tiger Woods are co-leaders at the HSBC Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, after both carded six-under, 66 rounds in the third round of play at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club.

The Englishman Rock, birdied his last two holes on his round after slipping on the par-four 16th with a bogey to get to 11-under overall.

After his third round performance, Rock also admitted to being a little star-struck, knowing that he would have the chance to go head-to-head with Woods on Sunday.

"He's the best guy I have ever seen play golf," he said of Woods.

Woods, started his week off in Abu Dhabi with a 35 putt round of 70 on Thursday, that left many wondering if he was going to struggle this week, as he has in the past on what he called very grainy putting surfaces.

After carding his opening round of 70. Woods has improved every day after with rounds of 69 and 66 to make his way to the top of the leader board and, co-leader with Rock.

“It just seemed like I didn’t do a lot of things right but I didn’t do a lot of things wrong today, it was just very consistent,” said Woods after his play in round three.

“You know, made a couple putts here and there. I stayed away from trouble and tried to keep the ball towards the fat side of some of these pins and I think I did a pretty good job.”

Woods began to ascend up the leader board on Saturday almost immediately in his round.

He carded a birdie on the opening hole, then another later on the front nine on No. 7.

His round really caught fire on the back-nine, as he ran off four more birdies, en route to shooting his bogey free round of 66.

“There’s too many guys up there right now. There’s a ton of guys with a chance to win,” Woods said heading into Sunday as the co-leader.

“You know, we have not separated ourselves from the field. The field is very bunched. I need to go out there and put together a solid round of golf, and I can’t go out there and shoot even par and expect to win. I’ve got to go out there and go get it.”

We'll see if Woods can make it two wins in his last two starts, or if the bunched field will find a way to hang around and steal a victory from one of the 54 hole leaders.