Tiger Woods hits out of the sand in the third round of the Buick Open. Woods played on Saturday in Grand Blanc Township, Mich.

Grand Blanc Township, Mich. ? Tiger Woods drove on adjacent fairways twice on the back nine, hit a cup of beer in a spectator’s hand, got rattled by a bug and was relegated to shaping some shots around trees and under branches.

He still managed to shoot a 7-under 65 on Saturday in the third round of the Buick Open, giving him a 17-under 199 total and a one-stroke lead when Michael Letzig (68) double bogeyed the last hole.

“The whole idea of the game is put the ball in the hole, and I did that,” Woods said. “But as far as controlling my ball, I didn’t do that.”

Woods opened his first tournament since missing the cut at the British Open with a 71 after what he said was probably his worst putting day.

When he was eight shots behind first-round leader Steve Lowery, Woods said he couldn’t make up ground in one day at Warwick Hills.

It took him two.

Woods roared back into contention with a 9-under 63 in the second round and took the lead with his 65 Saturday.

“Eight back, at a U.S. Open, you can make that up in one round,” he said. “You can’t make it up around here.”

He moved into a tie for the lead with Letzig at 17 under with a 33-foot birdie putt at No. 17.

Woods pumped his fist, shouted “Yeah!” and the traditionally rowdy gallery roared so loud he couldn’t communicate with caddie Steve Williams.

“It was pretty exciting,” said Woods, making his ninth Buick Open appearance. “The people here have been absolutely incredible, so supportive of this event over the years. That’s one of the reasons why we love coming here.”

Letzig hit a poor shot out of a greenside bunker at No. 18, barely clearing it and leaving him with a tricky lie. He fell to 16 under while Woods was on the practice range.

“I don’t care,” Letzig said when asked if it would be tough to forget what happened on the last hole. “I’m one shot out of the lead.”

Based on history, that’s probably an insurmountable deficit behind Woods.

Woods has a 35-1 record on the PGA Tour when he has the outright lead after 54 holes. The lone loss in this situation came when he was 20 in his third tournament as a pro to Ed Fiori in the 1996 Quad City Classic.

Woods and Letzig will be in the final group today just as they were at the Memorial in June, when Woods went on to win and Letzig’s 75 plummeted him to a tie for 14th.

GOLF

Funk leads Senior Open

Carmel, Ind. — Fred Funk shot a 4-under 68 at the U.S. Senior Open to take a one-stroke lead over Greg Norman and Joey Sindelar after Saturday’s third round.

Funk is at 13 under heading into today’s final round at Crooked Stick. Norman also had a 68, while Sindelar scrambled to finish with a 70. Amateur Tim Jackson, the overnight leader, shot a 73 and is three shots behind at 10 under.

Russ Cochran set a course record with a 64 after entering the day at even par.

Funk, Norman, Sindelar and Jackson all held the lead at some point Saturday. Funk was at 13 under after making a birdie on No. 13. After a bogey on the 14th, he made a 20-foot birdie putt on the 465-yard, par-4 16th and took the lead when Norman bogeyed the hole to drop to 12 under. Funk then made par on 17 and 18 to hold on.

Tom Watson, the runner-up at the British Open, shot a 3-over 75 and had a share of 41st at 2 over. Last year’s winner, Eduardo Romero, shot a 70 to move up to 3 under.

Kim fires 71 at British

Lytham St. Annes, England — Christina Kim does not regard herself as the most patient of players, saying she’s often teed off on the golf course.

But the American followed her father’s orders to be patient Saturday, shooting a 1-under 71 to head into the final round of the Women’s British Open in second place. She birdied the 18th hole to trail leader Catriona Matthew of Scotland by three shots.

SOCCER

Wizards fall to Dallas, 6-0

Frisco, Texas — Jeff Cunningham had a career-high four goals to move into third place on the league’s all-time list, and David Ferreira scored twice to lead FC Dallas to a 6-0 victory over the Kansas City Wizards on Saturday night.

Cunningham, who had his second MLS hat trick, has 112 goals to surpass former Dallas Burn standout Jason Kreis for third on the league’s career list.

Goalkeeper Dario Sala returned to the lineup for FC Dallas (5-9-5) after missing 12 games with a knee injury and needed to make just one save for the shutout, an acrobatic diving stop on the Wizards’ Davy Arnaud in the 48th minute.

Kansas City (5-7-7) dropped to 0-2-2 in its past four matches, scoring one goal in that span.

SWIMMING

Phelps wins again

Rome — Michael Phelps beat Milorad Cavic again, and this time there was no doubt about it. With a defiant performance in a supposedly inferior suit, Phelps stayed close over the outward lap and rallied on the return to become the first swimmer to break 50 seconds in the 100-meter butterfly, beating the Serbian with a time of 49.82.

Cavic also broke 50 seconds, but 49.95 was only good enough for silver. He wasn’t nearly as close as last year’s Beijing Olympics, when Phelps famously won by one-hundredth of a second and Cavic always maintained that he actually touched first.

TENNIS

Venus reaches final

Stanford, Calif. — Second-seeded Venus Williams advanced to the final of the Bank of the West Classic, beating third-seeded Elena Dementieva, 6-0, 6-1, on Saturday. Williams will play France’s Marion Bartoli, who beat Australia’s Samantha Stosur, 6-3, 1-6, 6-1, in the late semifinal match.

Davydenko, Ferrero advance

Umag, Croatia — Top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko cruised into the final of the Croatia Open on Saturday by beating Jurgen Melzer of Austria, 6-1, 6-1. The Russian will face former No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, who beat seventh-seeded Andreas Seppi of Italy, 6-1, 6-7 (1), 7-5, in the other semifinal.

NFL

Moss leaves Broncos’ camp

Englewood, Colo. — Jarvis Moss, the Denver Broncos’ top draft pick in 2007, left camp Saturday amid reports he’s contemplating retirement.

NBA

Spurs’ Parker ailing

San Antonio — Tony Parker will miss the next game for the French national team after the Spurs confirmed a mild right ankle sprain in their point guard.

Guard Ollie joins Thunder

Oklahoma City — The Oklahoma City Thunder have signed free agent guard Kevin Ollie. The 36-year-old Ollie has appeared in 637 games over 12 seasons.