Tiger Woods’ disastrous third round of 74 at the Quicken Loans National has all but ended his hopes of featuring in next week’s WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

The 39-year-old 14-time major winner appeared to be recapturing some of his old magic on Friday when his six-under par 65 moved him to within three shots of the lead in the tournament he is hosting in Virginia.

However Woods made three bogeys and a double bogey on Saturday to leave him on five-under for the tournament – nine shots behind leading duo Troy Merritt and Kevin Chappell who carded third round scores of
61 and 67 respectively.

Woods, who has dropped to 266 in the world rankings, needed to win the tournament to qualify for next week’s World Golf Championship event at Firestone, but that now looks highly unlikely.

Despite his impending disappointment, the former world number one was happy with his short game throughout and added that, “I just need to get the ball striking in there a little bit better and consistent.”

Meanwhile Merritt, who is ranked at 180, birdied 11 holes, including the first five, and only dropped one stroke in his impressive round.

“The big thing is we put ourselves in contention and that was the goal,” he said.

“I hit the ball really well and got a lot out of it. I think we’re going to have a decent chance.”

Rickie Fowler remains firmly in contention in Virginia just one shot off the pace at -13 after a third-round 68, with Jason Bohn, Charles Howell III, David Lingmerth and Whee Kim a further stroke back, two behind the leaders.