TIGER WOODS KNOWS he’s playing better than he has in the last two years, and he now has the leaderboard to prove it.
Woods hit a half-dozen extraordinary shots at the Chevron World Challenge on his way to a 5-under 67 on Friday, giving him a three-shot lead over Matt Kuchar and K.J. Choi going into the weekend at Sherwood Country Club.
It was the second straight tournament that Woods had the 36-hole lead. Three weeks ago at the Australian Open, he was one shot ahead until a 75 in the third round before eventually ending up third – his best finish of the year. With each round, it looks as though his best might not be too far behind.
Woods had two eagles, and nearly had a third with a flop shot from behind the 13th green that he was still talking about long after his round. Not even a double bogey on the par-three 15th hole when a gust knocked his ball into the water could keep him from a comfortable lead after two rounds.
“I want the lead after four days,” Woods, winless in his last 26 official starts, said. “Two days is nice, but four days is even better. I know I’m playing better and it’s nice to see my position on the leaderboard equating to it.
“Two stroke-play events in a row I’ve played really well.”
Woods will play in the final group Saturday with Kuchar, who still is trying to figure out how to finish off a good day at Sherwood. In the opening round, he was two shots out of the lead until a triple bogey on the 16th and a bogey on the 17th sent him to a 72. Kuchar played well again as the wind arrived in the middle of the round, and shot 67 to match Woods and Zach Johnson for the best score of the day.
“I always thought as a player, if you had a chance… and you want to test yourself against the very best. It seemed like, man, if you could go toe-to-toe with Tiger Woods and have a chance to beat him, that’s a real feather in your cap,” Kuchar said.
“And you want his best. You don’t want to see him struggling and missing cuts. That’s no fun to say, ‘I beat Tiger Woods. He missed the cut and I had a 15th-place finish.’ You want him at his best going toe-to-toe coming down to the wire. And it’s fun to see him at that point.”
Choi had a three-shot lead over Woods through six holes and was staying with him until hitting in the water twice on the par-three 15th, taking a quadruple-bogey seven. Choi bounced back with a birdie and salvaged a 73. Johnson and Hunter Mahan (68) were four shots behind at four-under 140 in the 18-player tournament.
Woods’ only bad hole was the 15th, where he had no complaints about the shot. He hit an eight iron just like he wanted, then could only hope that the wind swirling through that corner of the small canyon left the ball alone. It didn’t. He went into the water and missed his bogey putt.
There wasn’t much wrong with the rest of his day. On the par-five second hole, Woods was on the side of the hill under a tree when he hit a five 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 four 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-five 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 three 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 four iron to about 15 feet for eagle on the 11th, 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.
The golfing world awaits what comes next…
