Imperious Woods maintains advantage in Atlanta

Woods ended the day as he started it, with a three-stroke advantage, seemingly on track for his fourth victory in his past five starts.

Even though his putter rarely warmed up - he missed a seven-foot birdie chance at the final hole - golf's dominant player carded seven birdies in ideal scoring conditions at East Lake, on a day when the field averaged less than 68 strokes.

Woods posted a 19-under 191 total, with Mark Calcavecchia (63) alone on 16 under, and Spaniard Sergio Garcia (64) another two shots back in third place.

Masters champion Zach Johnson smashed the course record by two strokes, flirting with 59 before becoming the 20th player in US PGA Tour history to shoot 60. But he still trailed by six shots.

Open champion Padraig Harrington (67) made a slow start to disappear from the leaderboard, before improving on the back nine to end the day nine shots back.

"If you made a bunch of pars, you were going to get run over, so it was nice to make some birdies and get out there and still maintain the same sized lead I had starting out the day," Woods said.

"When you get greens this soft and pins this easy and greens this slow, you're going to have to make a bunch of birdies. You fire at every flag, even if you have a five-iron.

"I hit three terrible wedges, but the rest of my iron play was pretty good. I hit a lot of good shots in there, left myself some make-able putts. All you can do is be aggressive and hopefully they'll fall in."

Woods not only remained in control of the tournament, but is also certain to win the FedEx Cup play-off series, adding 10 million US dollars to his already overflowing retirement fund.

He came into the Tour Championship leading the points list. The only two players who could realistically pass him, Steve Stricker and Phil Mickelson, are out of contention.

Calcavecchia briefly tied for the lead with an eagle at the par-five 15th, but Woods, playing behind, birdied the same hole to go back in front, and gained two more shots when he also birdied the 16th, while Calcavecchia bogeyed it.

"I've got to beat him by four tomorrow," Calcavecchia said. "It's not likely. It could be a race for second. The way he's playing is just phenomenal." Justin Rose, the only British player in the 30-man field, improved to equal 19th position with a decent 66.

"I probably made a few more putts," Rose said after posting a four-under 206 total. "Being second group out, the greens rolled a little better.

"I have been driving the ball well all week. I just haven't hit an iron shot at the flag. That's probably the reason I haven't been able to make that many birdies. Today, I still didn't hit my irons well."

Rose said that even though he was out of contention, he was not going through the motions.

He added: "I'm not enjoying being down on the bottom. It's more pride and respectability. You want to end the year on a high. That was my goal this week."