TIGER ENJOYS SWINGING 60s
Displays some of old form as he follows up round of 69 with 68
AUGUSTA — There were flashes of the old Tiger Woods Saturday at the Masters, just not enough of them. Woods got off to a hot start but leveled off with a 68, his second straight round in the 60s (he carded a 69 Friday). It represents progress after a two-month layoff to get his game back.
“Oh, man, it could have been something seriously low today. I had it really going,” he said. “And I made a stupidly good birdie at 13, and then a stupidly bad bogey at 14. It all evens out. If I made a couple more putts, the score realistically should have been six or seven today.”
Woods said he was hoping to get to 10-under and put some heat on Jordan Spieth. He starts the final round tied for fifth with four others, including Rory McIlroy (whom he will be paired with on Sunday) and Dustin Johnson. He’s at 6-under, 10 shots behind Spieth, but not giving up.
“I’m going to have to put together a really special round of golf tomorrow. And you just never know,” he said. “You saw what happened in ’96 (when Greg Norman blew a six-stroke lead on Sunday). You saw what happened with Rory (squandering a four-stroke lead in the final round) in ’11. You never know around this golf course. Anything can happen.”
What has happened with Woods’ game this week is pretty impressive. He has put his chipping woes behind him and made it look like a great decision to take two months off to rebuild his game. Woods was back to dominating the par-5 holes with four birdies and he added two more on par-4s. He had two bogeys, including 18.
Playing with Sergio Garcia, his longtime foil, Woods charged out of the gate and for the first time in his Masters career, he played the first four holes in 3-under. On the par-5 second, he hit his third shot to six feet. After a 316-yard drive on 3, his approach shot grazed the cup and ran two feet past. On the tough par-3 4th, he hit it to 10 inches. He went to 4-under on the day with a birdie on 8, again after hitting his third shot to six feet.
If there was any hole where we saw the old Tiger, it was 13. He snap-hooked his drive into the left woods, losing his club in the process, complete with a familiar expletive.
He punched out and hit his third shot to 15 feet, then made the birdie putt, punctuated by a fist pump.
“Again, it was just a terrible tee shot,” Woods said. “That’s my old body pattern for a draw, with my new release pattern. And they don’t work. Then I got fortunate where I had a lie. If it was in the rough I couldn’t have played that shot, because I couldn’t get enough spin. But I was on the pine straw where I could get good, solid contact and spin it around the corner, which I did.
“And it was nice seeing Sergio. Sergio had a hell of a shot from over the green, I saw how much it broke at the end, so I gave it about an inch and a half more break, after watching his putt come up there and poured it in there.”
Unfortunately, he gave the shot right back, pushing his tee shot right into the pine straw. He used a gap between two trees but wasn’t very happy when he was left with a difficult chip across the green. It rolled back to 22 feet and he two-putted from there for bogey.
“I certainly have gotten better each day,” Woods said. “This is probably one of the harder tournaments to come back to because every shot is often on an uneven lie. I’m starting to get my feels back, my distance control on my shots.” What grade would he give himself? “A good one, thank you,” he said.