Woods takes command at Congressional
July 4, 2009
BETHESDA, Md. (AP)—Tiger Woods finished signing for the lowest 36-hole scoreever at Congressional Country Club and was met by a couple of AT&T Nationalofficials wanting to know his plans for the afternoon.
“I’m done,” Woods said, indicating that he would not be going to thepractice range.
The question is whether the 75 other players remaining at Congressional feelthe same way.
Woods took a share of the lead with a 3-iron into the par-5 16th green for atwo-putt birdie, kept his momentum by playing his five worst holes in 1 under,then finished off a 4-under 66 to build a one-shot lead going into the weekend.
He was at 10-under 130, breaking by one shot the 36-hole score set last yearby Tom Pernice Jr. and Jeff Overton. And while he had only a one-shot lead overRod Pampling (64) halfway through his tournament, history is on his side.
Woods has a 31-6 record on the PGA Tour when he has at least a share of the36-hole lead, winning the last 11 times dating to the Byron Nelson Championshipmore than five years ago.
Pampling has been around Woods enough not to lose sleep over this. Thescrappy Australian has played numerous practice rounds at dawn in the majorswith Woods, so nothing surprises him.
“He can be playing great and then you really don’t have a lot of chance ofbeating him,” Pampling said. “And then he’s just playing so-so and he’s stillright there with a chance to win coming down the last nine holes. He’s justamazing how consistent he is.”
On the other end of the spectrum was Anthony Kim.
He couldn’t get to the range fast enough.
Kim opened this tournament with a course-record 62, and with a couple ofbirdies early in the second round Friday afternoon, he caught Woods atop theleaderboard at 10 under.
But it wasn’t long before Kim started missing fairways, missing greens,missing putts. He slowly fell back, needing a hard-earned birdie on the 16th anda 5-footer for par on his final hole to salvage a 70 that put him alone inthird.
“I hate the way I hit the ball today,” he said. “Obviously, I didn’tdrive it the way I wanted to and like I did yesterday. So it was a rough day,but I’m glad I got through it, and now I have to go work on it and see what Ican figure out.”
Jim Furyk had a 67 and was alone in fourth, while U.S. Open champion LucasGlover ran off four straight birdies on his way to a 66 that helped him get backinto the hunt at 5-under 135.
Woods couldn’t figure out his swing for a short spell in the second round.
That’s when he was at his best.
After tying for the lead with that two-putt birdie at the 16th, this is asnapshot of his next five holes, when he could have easily slipped back into thepack chasing Kim.
He twice hit into the rough and was unable to reach the green. Another teeshot rode the wind into a fairway bunker. He pulled his tee shot on the par-3second hole on the side of a mound, the wrong side of the pin to miss. And fromthe middle of the fairway, he came down too steep and sailed his shot to theright, into a hollow of rough.
Woods played those holes in 1-under par.
He steadied himself with pars until hitting a soft sand wedge that skippedto a stop about 2 feet from the hole at No. 8 for one last birdie, and was offto the start he wanted as the “greedy host.”
Jim Furyk tees off on the four… AP – Jul 3, 6:38 pm EDT
“That’s why the guy is at such a high level,” Glover said after playingtwo days with Woods. “When things are going bad, he can rely on his short game.He just doesn’t waste any shots. If he’s losing shots, it’s because of a badbreak or a bad lie.”
Despite the five birdies, Woods recognized that five-hole stretch as the keyto his round.
“That’s how you keep yourself in a golf tournament,” Woods said. “I madea couple of big putts—17, 18, good up-and-down on 2—and it kept me going. Iplayed well early, and it’s all about keeping your momentum.”
He can only hope the momentum carries into the weekend, where Woods willhave a chance to win for the third time this year and move atop the FedEx Cupstandings for the first time this season.
This is his final tuneup before the British Open, and Woods won his previoustwo tournaments before majors, at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and theMemorial, hosted by Jack Nicklaus.
It would be a peculiar hat trick if he were to win all three PGA Tour eventswhere the host is a player—in this case, himself.
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