Woods briefly on top
Front-nine 31 starts surge but he stalls later
One of the biggest cheers Friday at the Hero World Challenge came from seeing the name Tiger Woods moved to the top of the leader board.
It just wasn’t there for long.
In another impressive showing in his latest comeback from back surgeries, Woods built on a solid start with a 31 on the front nine at Albany Golf Club in Nassau, Bahamas, that briefly gave him the lead. He stalled on the back nine with two bogeys and not enough birdie chances, and he settled for a 4-under 68.
“Successful,” Woods said, when asked to describe his round in one word.
When the second round ended, Woods was five shots behind Charley Hoffman, who had a 63 that might have sent fans into a frenzy if they had been watching.
Hoffman made 12 birdies, closing with five in a row . He was at 12-under 132 and had a three-shot lead over Jordan Spieth (67) and Tommy Fleetwood (69). Hoffman made only one par over his final 12 holes to go along with eight birdies and three bogeys.
But this week, a holiday exhibition with an 18-man field and no cut, is all about Woods. That much was obvious after the round.
Hoffman spoke to no more than five reporters about his round, while a dozen others were about 30 feet away surrounding Joe LaCava, Woods’ caddie, looking for any additional morsel about his round.
Woods delivered plenty on his own. He opened with three birdies in four holes. He made three good pars, one of them having to chip up the slope from a thin lie on No. 8, and then really raised hopes with his eagle on the par-5 ninth, set up by a 3-wood into the wind from 265 yards.
“Hit up in the air and took something off of it and cut it back into the wind,” he said.
He made the 20-foot putt to reach 8 under. Behind him, Hoffman made bogey on the par-3 eighth. Woods was alone in the lead, and the workers at the white scoreboard to the left of the green quickly moved his name to the top as some 100 people — that constitutes a large gallery this week — began cheering. There was a smattering of “He’s back!” and even a few mentions about the Masters.
Australian PGA
Marc Leishman took advantage of an early start to shoot a 7-under 65 and move into a share of the secondround lead at the Australian PGA Championship in Gold Coast. Leishman started on the 10th hole and had four birdies, an eagle and two bogeys on his first nine before birdieing three of his first five holes after the turn. He’s at 12-under 132 and tied with Adam Bland.
Champions Q-School
Tom Byrum eagled the first hole of a playoff with Tommy Tolles to win the PGA Tour Champions’ National Qualifying Tournament at TPC Scottsdale in Arizona. Byrum and Tolles earned full exemptions for next season along with Kent Jones, Tim Petrovic and reinstated amateur Ken Tanigawa.
Elsewhere
Spanish PGA star Jon Rahm has a new agent in a move that means Phil Mickelson will keep his brother as his caddie. Lagardere Sports announced Tim Mickelson, Rahm’s coach at Arizona State until leaving to become his agent at Lagardere, has made a full-time move to be on the bag for his brother next year. Rahm now will be represented by Steve Loy, president of golf at Lagardere, with Jeff Koski in the United States and Jamie Evans in Europe handling most of the daily affairs.