Tiger Woods hits tree during third round of the Turkish Airlines Open

During Tiger Woods’ first trip to the Turkish Airlines Open, leaving without the trophy would be a bummer, but leaving with an injury would definitely be worse.

That is exactly what happened on Saturday to the No. 1 player in the world, who smoked a tree branch on his follow through after finding himself out of position on the 11th hole during his third round.

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Woods, who started the day a shot back of the leaders, posted a third round 68, but on this birdie-friendly track it means he will have to make up six shots on Frenchman Victor Dubuisson, but the real question is how is the wrist after he made contact with the tree.

From the Golf Channel report …

“It’s a little tender,” Woods said. “I smoked it on something. I don’t know what it was, but I hit something hard.”

“I just deal with it, just play through it,” Woods said.

As you can see in the above GIF, courtesy of Adam Sarson, the reaction looked worse than the actual injury, but the good news for Tiger fans is that he played through the pain and was still able to make four birdies (including one on this 11th hole) to finish his round and isn’t completely out of the equation at the Montgomerie Maxx Royal course.

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Woods will need to show a little more of that Friday 63 and a little less of those wayward tee shots he hit on Saturday to give himself a chance, but the good news is he’s chasing a rather unknown who will definitely start to notice Tiger if he makes any charge during the final round.

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Shane Bacon is the editor of Devil Ball Golf and Busted Racquet on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shanebaconblogs@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter at @ShaneBacon!