Ryder Cup hero Jamie Donaldson set the early clubhouse target in the final round of the Players Championship, but it was team-mate Sergio Garcia who was better placed to challenge for the title.
Donaldson, who secured the winning point for Europe against the United States at Gleneagles last year, carded six birdies and one bogey in a closing 67 to finish eight under par at Sawgrass.
That was two shots off the lead shared by five players, with Garcia recovering from a poor start to join American quartet Chris Kirk, Ben Martin, Bill Haas and Kevin Kisner at the top of the leaderboard.
Garcia, who had snapped his putter in half after a second round of 72 on Friday, bounced back with a 67 on Saturday but found himself three off the pace when he bogeyed the first hole in the final round.
However, the 35-year-old birdied the second, fourth and fifth to boost his hopes of winning the so-called "fifth major" for the second time, having triumphed in 2008.
Eighteen players were within three shots of the lead, including world number one Rory McIlroy, who had gone to the turn in 36 and picked up a birdie on the 11th.
By the time the leaders teed off, Tiger Woods had long since finished a final round of 72 which left the 14-time major winner joint 69th of the 75 players to make the cut.
However, the 39-year-old was looking to take the positives from completing just his second full tournament of the year after a career-worst 82 in the first, an injury withdrawal in the second and a share of 17th in the Masters.
"It was a mixed bag pretty much all week," Woods told reporters after a round containing a hat-trick of birdies from the 10th but also a triple bogey on the 14th. "A lot of really, really good stuff out there, some mediocre and some bad.
"It can turn quick here. You can be going along, playing fine, all of a sudden make a double here and it's like, 'What just happened?'. It's just the nature of this golf course.
"We're progressing. Let's just keep progressing, keep putting the pieces together, keep chipping away at it . We had some glaring weaknesses at the beginning of the year. Those are now gone, and now we can start cleaning up some other stuff, too."
Source: PA
