La Jolla, CA (Best E Casino) - The sore knee looked steady, if only for a moment, and Tiger Woods took three hops as the ball rolled towards its destination at the bottom of the cup.

It was only one of the greatest shots in a career highlighted by great shots.

And he wasn't even finished.

Woods holed a 70-foot downhill eagle putt with six feet of break at the U.S. Open on Saturday just as it looked like he had run out of magic moments in this major championship.

"I was just trying to lag it down there," said Woods.

Three holes later his chip-shot from the rough beside the 17th green bounced once, hit the flag stick and dropped into the cup for a birdie. Woods could only laugh.

"Just pure luck," he said.

Then, another long eagle putt fell at the 18th hole and the third round at Torrey Pines had not one, not two, but three signature moments.

The shots, all coming in his last six holes, gave Woods an electrifying one- under 70 and handed the world No. 1 the third-round lead -- a position where he has been bulletproof in major championships.

He was at three-under 210 overall and in position to win his 14th major championship on Sunday. He will be seeking his third U.S. Open crown and first since 2002.

"I can't wait to get back to my room," Woods said, and who could blame him?

Hobbled by the left knee that required surgery two days after the Masters, Woods used his club as a cane as he made his run at Lee Westwood and Rocco Mediate. Longtime caddy Steve Williams helped him walk onto the 17th green.

All it did was make his amazing finish all the more improbable.

"Nutto up there did all that crazy stuff in front of us," was all Mediate could muster, his once-solid third-round lead a distant afterthought.

Westwood, an Englishman who will try to end Europe's 38-year drought at the U.S. Open, drew Woods as a final-round partner by shooting a 70 that left him one shot back at two-under 211.

He will face Woods' 13-0 record in major championships with at least a share of the 54-hole lead. Woods is 54-3 overall in that position worldwide -- and Westwood owns one of the spoilers.

Eight years ago he beat Woods with a final-round 64 at a European Tour event in Germany, one of Westwood's 18 wins on that circuit.

"It's better to have done it than not done it," said Westwood.

The 45-year-old Mediate held the lead longer than anyone else on Saturday, but finished with a 72 and was in third place at one-under 212. He was done in by a double-bogey six at the 15th and a bogey at the 16th, rebounding somewhat with a birdie at the 17th.

Bothered by a bad back for decades, Mediate has lost an in-round lead two days in a row, raising questions about the five-time PGA Tour winner's ability to close out a tournament this big at his age.

"I'm not afraid of the scoreboard," he joked. "It can't do anything to you, it doesn't punch or anything, it just looks at you."

Woods held at least a share of the lead for the fifth time in the last 14 majors. He has, of course, won each time. But this time Woods is hobbled by a bum knee that's acting up "just whenever it decides to act up," Woods said.

"Is it getting worse? Yes, it is," he said.

And while he's limped at times during three grueling rounds at the longest course in major championship history, Woods' knee looked fine as he hopped and pumped his fist in celebration of his 70-foot eagle at the 13th hole on Saturday.

It was the second eagle on the par-five hole in as many days for Woods, but he promptly made bogey at No. 14 and fell two-over par for his round.

Then, after hitting his drive at the 15th, Woods buckled over in pain. He limped down the fairway using his club as a cane, then made the first of two consecutive pars.

It was the calm eye of the storm.

Woods' chip-in birdie at the 17th was as lucky as his eagle on the 13th was surprising. From the deep rough on the left side of the green, the ball bounced once on the putting surface and hit the middle of the pin before falling into the cup.

Without that fortuitous collision, the ball would have run a long way past the hole. Woods took off his hat, covered his face and seemed to laugh at the improbability of it all.

"It was like, you've got to be kidding me," said Woods. "I was just thinking, whatever you do don't make six here, just give yourself a chance of making four. All of a sudden I walk away with three."

And all of a sudden he had another three, this one after rolling in a curling eagle putt from 25 feet at the 18th. There was almost no other way the round could have ended, the way things were going.

Woods, who had started his round with a double-bogey for the second time in three days, was all smiles.

"A boring round of golf, right?" he said.

Only in the other players' dreams.

Geoff Ogilvy, the 2006 U.S. Open winner at Winged Foot, shot a 72 and was knotted in fourth place with D.J. Trahan (73) at one-over 214, four shots behind Woods.

There were only five more players within five shots of the lead -- and none of them were named Phil Mickelson or Stuart Appleby.

Mickelson used a driver for the first time in three rounds and walked off with a 76 that left him tied for 47th place at nine-over 222 and out of contention for his first U.S. Open title.

His round included a crippling quadruple-bogey nine at the par-five 13th hole, where it took Lefty four chip-shots to get his ball to stay on the green. It wasn't the first time the San Diego native, who grew up playing Torrey Pines, had a nine on its 13th hole.

"I've had a nine on 13," said Mickelson. "I was eight years old, but I have had a nine there."

Appleby, who held a one-shot lead on Woods and two others after the second round, stumbled to an eight-over 79 and fell eight shots back at five-over 218.

Too far back to challenge "Nutto" on Sunday.