Tiger's in driver's seat, no hydrants in sight
Tiger Woods fired a five-under 67 on Friday to take a three-shot lead over K.J. Choi and Matt Kuchar at the halfway mark at the Chevron World Challenge, the limited field, money-grab event that benefits his foundation. It’s the second stroke play tournament in a row where Tiger has been atop the leaderboard through 36 holes.
Last month at the Australian Open, he had a one-shot advantage going into the weekend, but shot a third-round 75 and bounced back the last day to place third.
Tiger is looking to win for the first time in over two years — his last victory came at the Australian Masters in 2009, shortly before the National Enquirer exposed his extramarital affairs, leading to his major sex scandal and fall from grace.
“Well, I want the lead after the four days, yeah,” said Woods. “Two days is nice, but four days is even better. So that’s ‑‑ I know I’m playing better, and it’s nice to see my position on the leaderboard kind of equating to it. It didn’t really show up obviously at the Presidents Cup because we were playing a different format, but two stroke play events in a row I’ve played really well, and I’ve been either near the lead or in the lead.”
Tiger had two eagles on Friday (Nos. 2 and 11) and hit several exceptional shots, according to Doug Ferguson’s AP story:
On the par-5 second hole, Woods was on the side of the hill under a tree when he hit a 5-iron with a fade over the water to a front pin. He skipped sideways down the hill and clutched his fist about shoulder-high when the ball plopped down 4 feet from the cup. It’s rare for anyone, much less Woods, to show that kind of emotion on the second hole on a Friday. The shot was that good, and there was more to come.
His one bad swing on the par-5 fifth was a snap hook into the trees, and he was lucky to find the ball to punch out. From 257 yards to an elevated green, Woods hit a 3-wood left of the flag, and it caught the slope and rolled to 4 feet. What looked like a possible bogey turned into an unlikely birdie chance, until he missed the putt.
He three-putted the next hole as Choi began to retake the lead, but Woods caught him with a 4-iron to about 15 feet for eagle on No. 11, followed by a 12-foot birdie putt on the next hole and that flop shot that stopped a turn from dropping on No. 13 that left him a tap-in birdie.
I’m betting Tiger will shoot better than 75 in the third round, but we’ll see. How do you think Tiger will fare this weekend? Will he pull off the win? And if he does, is he “back”?
(AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)
I see Woods winning by 5 shots, and WUP winning caption contest.
What’s the deal with you always throwing in “money grab” when talking about this event.. comes off like its supposed to be demeaning.. don’t all the proceeds go to charity? If Im not mistaken, most of the guys donate their share of the purse to charity as well..
Tiger is proving that he is getting comfortable with that new swing. Which means, barring any health setbacks, we should see him in the mix of things whenever he tees it up..
But I feel like most people won’t say he is “back” until he is winning consistently AND leaving the rest of the field in the dust periodically..
He’s made a good start to the tournament. Just needs to close this one out with 2 more solid rounds of golf.
Playing 4 solid rounds has been problem in recent times.
This could be his weekend.
LOS, it’s Tiger, he who can do no right. Tiger could start a mint, press off a bunch of gold coins, hand them out no strings attached to every needy person within 100 miles, and they’d find a way to find fault with it.
Glad to see him playing well as of late and prove that Couples knew what he was doing in using his captain’s pick on him. Hopefully he can keep it up this weekend and throughout next year.
Last year Woods had a four shot lead at the Chevron after 36 holes.
This year he has a three shot lead.
What’s all this hype about him improving?
For those of us that actually watched him play the first 2 rounds – it is clear that Tiger swing is much improved over last year. And it seems to be a very simple and easy swing to repeat. I’ve also noticed that Tiger doesnt appear to be obsessed with all those annoying pre-swing drills, as has been the case in recent years.
I listened to Tigers interviews this week and he explained that he is now able to physically put in all the practice required to play at the highest level. He said last year and earlier this season he was restricted in the number of swings per day by his doctors.
He is close to being back, but the true tell of if the “Old Tiger” is back will be when he starts making those incredible plays around the green. The lob shot he played yesterday ended up on the lip of the cup. When Tiger is back is his true form it will fall into the hole. Stay tuned
Marky Mark, that was a pretty horrid piece of evidence you used. You haven’t been watching Tiger play these last few weeks, huh?
@Larry Chen
As they say in court, “Evidence beats no evidence.” You lose this case.
The case wasn’t closed until Tiger just closed it today.