Enlarge imageBy Larry Fine
JERSEY CITY, New Jersey (Reuters) - Four players were tied for the lead with nine holes to play at the Barclays Classic with Tiger Woods just two shots off the pace in a final-round shootout at Liberty National.
Triple major winner Ernie Els of South Africa and Americans Steve Stricker, Heath Slocum and Steve Marino were knotted at eight under par on the first sunny day during the opening leg of the FedExCup playoffs.
Ten players were within two shots of the lead as they battled for victory and position in the four-event series that pays $10 million to the overall points winner.
Els was five-under for the day after tapping in for birdie at the par-three 14th and was bogey-free through 14 holes.
The 197th-ranked Slocum made a spectacular start, coming within five inches of a hole-in-one at the 219-yard second and holing out from 158 yards to eagle the 442-yard par-four fifth. The American was three-under after 11 holes.
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Stricker bounced back from a bogey at the fifth with three birdies in his next five holes, while fellow American overnight co-leader Marino played his outward nine at one-over with a bogey at the third.
Paul Goydos, who shared the third-round lead with Marino on nine under par, double-bogeyed the third and bogeyed the fourth, and was on seven under par along with compatriot Nick Watney, who birdied four holes in a row from the sixth.
Woods burst into action after a three-putt bogey at the par-three fourth where his two-foot par putt caught the left edge and spun out of the hole. The world number one birdied three of the next four holes to reach six under par.
Also on six under par were Sweden's Fredrik Jacobson and Americans Webb Simpson and Scott Verplank.
(Editing by Ken Ferris)
