Tiger Woods is in a place he has not been in 30 months — atop of the leaderboard on the USPGA Tour going into the weekend.
With alarming control, Woods putted for birdie on every hole and made short work of the par-fives on Friday at Bay Hill for a seven-under 65, giving him a share of the lead with Charlie Wi after two rounds of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
“A lot of positives today,” Woods said.
Photo: Reuters
Wi, the 54-hole leader at Pebble Beach this year, rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt on his final hole for a 68 to join Woods at 10-under 134.
Former US Open champion Graeme McDowell had an eagle-par-birdie finish for a 63, while Jason Dufner extended his solid play on the Florida swing with a 69. They were one shot behind at 135.
Woods last had the 36-hole lead in any tour event at the Australian Open in November last year, and he tied for third. On the USPGA Tour, go all the way back to the Tour Championship in September 2009 to find the last time he was top of the leaderboard going into the weekend.
“I want to win. Yes, absolutely,” said Woods, a six-time winner at Bay Hill. “We’ve got a long way to go. It’s not like it’s over right now. We’ve got 36 holes to go.”
Woods at least is in better shape than he was two weeks ago. His future looked as muddled as ever when Woods was taken off the golf course in a cart at Doral because of soreness and swelling in his left Achilles tendon, the same injury that forced him to miss three months and two majors a year ago.
Woods only had a couple of nervous moments.
He ran off four straight birdies on the front nine to quickly get into the mix, and then could not decide how to play his tee shot on the 10th. It did not help that earlier in the round, he looked over at adjacent first tee and saw Nick Watney — affectionately known as “Rube” — pipe his tee shot out-of-bounds to the right.
“I got over there and for some reason I’m thinking: ‘You know, I probably really shouldn’t hit this driver; I’ll take something off of it and just hit a little softy out there.’ And bailed on it, because I didn’t want to hit it right out-of-bounds,” Woods said. “And I chalked that up to just not listening to my instincts of hitting a three-iron down there or just chipping a five-wood — or not watching Ruby hit that shot.”
Woods was lucky. The snap hook bounced off a net fence protecting the houses and he had just enough room to play to the middle of the 10th green and walk away with par.
It was the fifth time Woods had had at least a share of the 36-hole lead at Bay Hill and he has failed to win only once from that position. Woods served up several reminders that the tournament is only halfway over, along with gentle rebukes that it has not been that long that he has been in the hunt.
Wi, who shared the 18-hole lead with Dufner, birdied four of his final six holes to catch up to Woods. From the right rough on the ninth hole, he hammered out a shot to 25 feet below the cup for one last birdie.
The best round came from McDowell and it was a reminder of how far he has come in one year. McDowell had a dream season in 2010 by winning the US Open at Pebble Beach, winning the decisive point for Europe in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor, then ending the year with a record comeback against Woods in the Chevron World Challenge.
McDowell had a hard time managing his time, much less his expectations, and the eye-opener was at Bay Hill last year when he shot 80.
This time, McDowell was 17 shots better.
“That 80 was a wake-up call, but I didn’t wake up for another four months or so,” McDowell said. “It was more of the panic button. It was a pretty awful four or five months for me.”
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