Score's a little worse, but Woods says he played better on Day 2

Tiger Woods didn't wow the crowd with a bend-it-around-the-trees shot on Friday, but on a day when the scoring was much rougher, he carded a solid 70 that has him perfectly placed for the weekend.

By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.COM Contributor

AUGUSTA, Ga. --  We’re used to seeing one finger wrapped in tape. This week it’s two. At least.

And he’s working the shades, too. Not used to those, either.

Welcome to Tiger Woods’ comeback, where the pollen is as thick as a Georgia drawl and giving his eyes and sinuses fits. And the fingers? He’s still working on getting those calluses back after a five-month layoff.

But other than those two things, it’s business as normal inside the ropes.

He made some putts, he missed some fairways. He didn’t wow the crowd with a bend-it-around-the-trees shot and sideways gallop like he did Thursday, but that hardly mattered.

Woods backed up his opening 68 with a 70 Thursday to settle in at 6 under par heading into the weekend when the course goes big-boy and separates the contenders from the rest of the field.

When he walked off the course, he was two shots back and comfortably settled into a tie for third place behind Lee Westwood. By the time he exited the room, he was down by three and tied with K.J. Choi and Ricky Barnes.

Like your spot on the leaderboard?

“Yeah,’’ he grinned, as he unwrapped the tape on his fingers, “I do.’’

He drew a laugh. From reporters. Not the field.

Yes, Tiger is in the hunt. For his fifth Green Jacket. For another miracle comeback from a layoff. For the 14th time in 16 tries. The two times he wasn’t? He was an amateur.

“It feels good,’’ he said. “It feels really good.  As of right now, I'm only two back, three back now.  It feels good to be back and in contention.

“You know, I usually put myself in contention most of the time most years here, and this year I'm right there. You know, we've got 36 more holes and I'm sure the golf course, they are not going to make it easy for us.  They made it easy on the first day for us and today was certainly much more difficult.’’

Winds swirling at Amen Corner, among other places. Greens a step faster. Pin placements seriously stronger.

A Bobby Jones Bermuda Triangle that would test any game, let alone one that was coming without much more than range work. A lot of range work, which Tiger substituted for tournament tests. And at the level that he practices, it worked.

“I felt that I could put myself in contention,’’ Tiger said. “My practice has been really consistent and progressing with (swing coach) Hank (Haney).  And as I said, I didn't have the luxury of playing tournaments coming in here.  So I had to be more focused on my practice sessions coming into it and then take more out of them than most people would.

“I feel very comfortable.  As I said, my practice sessions were very consistent with Hank, and we did some really good work leading into this tournament and felt very comfortable with everything,” he added. “Basically just had to get the pace of the greens, because the times I've come up here, they weren't like this; they never are.”

It worked. He surprised himself a bit with the opening 68 – not the score but because of the way he hit it – but that evened out. He hit the ball and putted better Friday – even if his score was two shots higher.

“I think that's a factor of the conditions," Tiger said. “But I played …  I feel like I have more control of the golf ball today from tee to green and I hit putts right on my lines.  That's something I wasn't doing yesterday."

Tiger made the turn even for the day, then birdied both par 5s on the back. He laid up on the 13th to get a good angle in to set up a 20-foot birdie putt.

“I got too conservative on the pitch, left it short, and after watching (Matt Kuchar’s) putt, I thought he hit it too far right, tried to hit it too hard,’’ Tiger said. “But if he would have hit it with the right pace, it would have gone in.  But after seeing that, I allowed for maybe another ball, ball and a half more, and it made it.”

At 15, he faced a tricky little pitch.
   
“I had to line it over the sprinkler but short of the green, and I had to line it more, basically, an inch past the sprinkler, so just killed it,’’ he said. “I was actually fortunate it actually went on the green, and from there, I made the putt.’’

He had chances at both 17 and 18, but couldn’t convert. At 17, he misread the line.

“Today I hit a lot of good putts; I made my share,’’ he said. “Conditions were so much more difficult today.  As you can see the scores, guys are not tearing this place apart like they were yesterday.  Thirty guys were under par yesterday, and that's not going to be the case today.’’

Or this weekend. Every Augusta National finish required your A game. Or maybe in Tiger’s case his A-minus-the-last-five months game.

“I wouldn't say it made me sharper, but I know that I had to be more focused when I practiced.  I had to get more out of it,’’ Tiger said.

Someone asked if 138 on the weekend will do it. Enough for another jacket?

Maybe yes. Maybe no. Mostly just maybe.

The only sure things are the pollen will continue to swirl and the greens will get faster. And the shades and calluses.

“The pollen is just killing my eyes,’’ he said. “I've been sneezing and hacking all week.  So trying to keep it out of my eyes the best I can.’’

Playing that way, too. And it’s turning out not to be too shabby. Shades, still-tender fingers and all.