Woods’ 65 leaves him in hunt, 4 shots back
POTOMAC, Md. — What once was a formality is now a pleasant surprise for Tiger Woods. He goes into the weekend at the Quicken Loans National without having to make up too much ground on the lead.
Woods chipped in from 80 feet for birdie after his only bad miss off the tee, made four of his six birdie putts from 18 feet or longer and matched his lowest score of the year with a 5-under 65 on a steamy Friday morning at the TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm.
He was tied for 11th, four shots behind Beau Hossler, Ryan Armour and Brian Gay, who share a three-way lead going into today.
“I’m not that far back,” Woods said. “The scores aren’t going to be that low and it’s going to be a tough weekend. It will be over 100 degrees and it will be a long weekend mentally and physically. I’m in a good position now.”
Not since the Valspar Championship during the Florida swing has Woods been this close to the 36-hole leader. He was tied for second that week in March, two shots behind, and he wound up one behind the winner.
The biggest difference was putting.
Woods didn’t make a putt longer than 8 feet when he opened with a 70 on Thursday. He was rolling them in from much longer range in the second round, starting with his opening hole. After scrambling for a bogey on the 11th hole when his shot went into grass so deep he could barely see the golf ball, Woods bounced back with an 18-foot birdie putt he had to play well outside the hole.
“I hit good putts, started the ball on line and with the right seed, and they just didn’t go in,” Woods said of his first round. “So what? If I just continue to do that, which I haven’t done in probably about four tournaments, they’re going to start falling. And today, they fell.”
The big moment came on the 18th hole as he made the turn. He sprayed a drive well to the right into the rough, came up short of the green and then hit a perfect pitch that broke sharply back to the left and fell on its last turn as thousands in his gallery erupted.
Woods began to hit his stride on the front nine, ripping 3-wood from 282 yards onto the green at the par-5 second for a two-putt birdie, following with a 25-foot birdie on the next hole and spinning a wedge back to 2 feet for a tap-in birdie on the fifth.
Woods has struggled with finishing off rounds. He was one behind in the final round at Bay Hill when he drove out-of-bounds on the 16th hole for a double bogey. He was having a good final round at The Players Championship until making bogey with a wedge on the 14th hole, failing to birdie the reachable par-5 16th and taking double bogey on the island-green 17th with a tee shot in the water.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Jerry Kelly will take a one-shot lead over Miguel Angel Jimenez into the weekend at the U.S. Senior Open. Kelly chipped in for birdie on No. 18 to highlight his round of 1-under 69. He was at 5-under at the halfway point and will play today in the final pairing with Jimenez, who is hoping to add this senior major to the Regions Tradition he won last month. He shot a bogeyfree round of 68, hitting 17 greens in regulation but sinking only a pair of birdies on the Broadmoor’s greens.
KILDEER, Ill. — Lydia Ko surged into contention at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, shooting a 6-under 66 in the second round to move two strokes off the lead Friday. The 21-year-old New Zealander shook off a rough first round at Kemper Lakes to reach 4-under and give herself a shot to win her third major. First-round leader Sung Hyun Park (72), 2016 winner Brooke Henderson (71) and So Yeon Ryu (69) were tied for the lead at 6-under 138.