Tiger Woods left his rivals trailing again at the American Express World Championship in Ireland, opening a five-shot lead thanks to a third-round 67.

The world number one birdied each of the par fives as welll as the last, never dropped a shot and looks perfectly poised to win the tournament without having to extend himself.

It will be left to a group of six players on 14 under to mount some kind of challenge to Woods at Mount Juliet, although it seems unlikely that they will catch him.

Woods has won the last 14 tournaments in which he has led after two rounds - and in 54 holes at Mount Juliet, he has not dropped a shot.

Retief Goosen, David Toms, Vijay Singh, Scott McCarron, Steve Lowery and Jerry Kelly are the men on the 'Tiger trail', although it seems that they are fighting for second.

Several players mounted charges only to fall away at crucial points.

Perhaps the best effort came from Chris DiMarco, who got to within one shot of Woods before three dropped shots in two holes ended his challenge.

A misjudged iron approach into the 13th gave him a double bogey and halted a run of six birdies in 12 holes.

From there, few players ever came close to narrowing the gap on Woods, who for the final part of his round, was never less than three shots ahead.

In an event so far dominated by Americans, there was some comfort for European Ryder Cup captain Sam Torrance, who saw Thomas Bjorn and Padraig Harrington put themselves further up the leaderboard.

A round of 66 for Denmark's Bjorn got him to 10 under for the tournament, while a 67 got local hero Harrington to the same overall score.

Scotland's Colin Montgomerie also had his best round of the tournament - his 69 being his first sub 70 round of the week.

Leading scores from the third round (GB unless stated):

19 under - Tiger Woods (USA) 65-65-67
14 under - Jerry Kelly (USA) 67 65 70, David Toms (USA) 66-67-69, Steve Lowery (USA) 66-67-69, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 67-67-68, Scott McCarron (USA) 71-67-64, Vijay Singh 67-69-66
13 under - Rocco Mediate (USA) 69-67-67
12 under - Davis Love III (USA) 69 67 68