Tiger Woods score, Round 2 highlights: 65 at Hero World Challenge offers hope
Woods shot an astonishing bogey-free 65 on Friday in the Bahamas and looked fantastic
If we are able to look back at the end of a 10-win run from Tiger Woods a decade from now, Friday's Round 2 at the Hero World Challenge will be among the most important days toward that last final ride from Woods. Tiger may have returned to golf on Thursday with a 73 in Round 1, but he returned to golf on Friday with a 7-under 65 in Round 2.
Woods was borderline flawless on an easy scoring day in the Bahamas and shot up the 17-man leaderboard as quickly as he fell down it at the end of the day on Thursday. Woods, who played by himself in under three hours, went out in 33. But unlike Thursday, he came home in 32 for the 65 that made everyone in the golf world think irrational things about the first part of April.
"Yesterday I was 4 under through eight," said Woods. "Today, I made a bad swing on eight. This time I got it up and down. I didn't play nine and 11-over par. It feels good. As I said yesterday, I had it going through eight holes and I lost it. I was able to play the middle part of the round better, and I moved myself up the board."
His round included seven birdies, but there were three shots that stood out in importance for different reasons. Let's take a look at all three of them.
1. Near-ace on No. 12
The first was on the 202-yard, par-3 12th hole. Woods hit a six iron to about six inches. I don't really care where the ball ended up, though. What I care about his how fluid his swing looks. As Chris Solomon noted on Twitter, it matters that he knows (and we know) that those shots still exist within him.
"This was a perfect full six-iron," said Woods. "I couldn't hit it any better than that one."
I'm not a mechanics expert by any stretch of the imagination, but Woods' swing seems different. It looks easier and more sustainable. Honestly, it looks like his body isn't hurting him every time he makes a move at the ball. And it also looks like he's not trying to make moves at the ball that will hurt his body. Circular arguments and such.
Says he has made "subtle changes" to swing to protect his back following surgery. Started looking back at his swing when younger.
— GC Tiger Tracker (@GCTigerTracker) December 2, 2016
2. Second shot on No. 16
This shot might have gone unnoticed as it was not very memorable other than for the reason I'm about to present. Woods sprayed a drive on the par-4 16th hole in the sand behind some shrubbery and rocks. He took a full hack at it and barely advanced towards the green.
I don't care about what happened with the ball, though. I care about what didn't happen with Woods. There was no grimacing, and there was no back-grabbing from Big Cat. He simply took the swing, got a different club and hit the next shot.
A win this week for Tiger is making it through 72 holes unscathed and not shooting four 80s, so shots like this one matter in the grand scheme of things. It was good to see Tiger take a big hack into what amounted to a pile of rocks and not see his body come completely undone.
3. Par-saving putts on No. 16
What followed on No. 16 was even more remarkable and maybe the biggest harbinger of what is to come for Woods. He took just 25 putts in his round on Friday and looked as comfortable as I've seen him in years with the flat stick. His putting in Round 2 was punctuated by this big-time par-saver after his earlier mess at the par-4 16th.
"To not lose any momentum," Woods said after his round. "That was a big one."
It was vintage Tiger, too. The fist pump par-save has been in his repertoire since he was tall enough to say the word repertoire. It was clear he wanted to post a bogey-free round so to hold serve with that kind of putt with just two holes left meant everything.
After up and in at 8, Tiger said he told Joey: "I'm not dropping a shot today."
— GC Tiger Tracker (@GCTigerTracker) December 2, 2016
You can tell he's enjoying the feel of Old Faithful, too. Woods put his old Scotty Cameron back in the bag this week (one of the two putters his kids cannot touch), and it served him well on Friday.
Tiger asked when he got the old Scotty putter back in his hands. "I'd say the day we (Nike) got out of the hard-goods side."
— GC Tiger Tracker (@GCTigerTracker) December 2, 2016
Woods will not play in the first group off on Saturday after his 65, but he also probably won't contend for the win this weekend as he is just 6 under for the tournament while the leaders will be in the mid teens by the end of Friday.
The score and the leaderboard don't matter at all for Woods this week, however. Or they shouldn't. Woods' goals are contending at future PGA Tour events and future major championships. The three shots we looked at above all present different reasons that can happen again.
And that should delight Tiger's throng of fans more than anything else he does this week.
















