Tiger Woods – For the second consecutive day, Congressional’s Blue course played hard and fast in sweltering heat. But for Tiger Woods, the setup was slightly more conducive for scoring today. And so, he did, firing a 3-under-par 68 to move his way into the Top 10 with many golfers still on the course.
Unknowns Jimmy Walker and Brendo de Jonge shared the lead at 5-under.
“If the (conditions) stay like this, I don’t see the lead going anywhere,” Woods said. “But it was good today. I think the tour staff did a great job of moving some of the tees up, and we had corner pins or front pins. It was fair. Today I thought you could be a little more aggressive than yesterday.”
Woods started his second round on Congressional’s long and grueling back nine that, on Thursday, played more than a shot over par. After routine pars over the first four holes on the back, Woods found the rough off the tee at the par-4 14th hole and would have to get up and down for par from 76 yards. He found the rough again at the 15th and again hit a nice spinning pitch from 93 yards that he was able to nestle close to the hole for par.
Then at the 16th, he displayed some Tiger magic with a 48-foot putt eagle to get to 1 under par for the tournament.
“That was actually a tricky putt because it was a double-breaking putt up that hill,” Woods said. “It’s hard left and then just want to feed back a couple of balls to the right, and I was waiting for it to feed back because it was hanging, hanging, hanging, and then it just fell right in.”
After making the turn at 1 under par for the day, the 36-year-old, 14-time major winner found the rough again with a fairway metal off the tee at par-4 first hole. From there, he made his first bogey of the day. He made his first birdie on the round at the par-4 fifth hole. From there, he made another birdie at 8 and a par at the ninth to finish his round.
“Today I think I got more out of my round than I did yesterday,” Woods said. “On a golf course like this, you’re not going to hit it perfect all day. It’s just too difficult. I had to make some saves, and I made two key saves there at 14 and 15.”
