Albany (The Bahamas): Two superb saves — one from off the fairway and the other a monster 25-foot putt — saw Tiger Woods come roaring back into contention on Day Two of the Hero World Challenge even as in-form men Dustin Johnson and Hideki Matsuyama took a two shot lead over the rest of the pack on a day of low scores here on Friday.
Woods had opened with a one over par 73 on Thursday but turned the clock back in his second round. Playing alone after his partner, Olympic champion Justin Rose, pulled out with a back niggle, he scorched the course with a seven under 65, eliminating the mistakes that had marred his first round.
“Yesterday I had it going and lost it. “Today was different,” Woods said later.
“I turned those two par 5s into under par and that’s four shots right there.
Consequently, I was able to play the middle part of the round better, turned it around, kept the momentum going and moved myself up the board.” Defending champion Bubba Watson though, had the round of the day with a nine under par 63 that out him three shots behind the leaders after an even par first round, while Matt Kuchar and Louis Oosthuizen returned second consecutive 67s to share third place, one ahead of Watson.
“I had to come out and try to shoot something in the 60s, and when you get lucky, chip in for eagle, hit one out of the rocks or sand or whatever you want to call it with a 3-wood and hit it to 10 feet and make that for eagle, that’s when you know you can shoot a decent round or a lot lower round,” Watson said coming off the course.
The big-hitting J. B. Holmes and 2014 winner Jordan Speith suffered ate meltdowns to share seventh place. The former was comfortably atop the leaderboard but a wild back nine that included a double bogey from the water and a triple on the 18th saw him finish with a one over 73.
Speith stumbled on the very last hole, four-putting for a double bogey, the pair of them are four shots behind the leaders. Johnson had three birdies in a row on his front nine and then upped the pace with some blistering drives, including a 349-yard monster thrash on the par four 18th that gave him a birdie. An eagle earlier had set the rangy American on his way and he will most certainly be in the mix on Sunday afternoon.
Had it not been for a bogey on the par three 17th — the only one of the day —Matsuyama would have finished as the sole leader, but he found the bunker and could not chip out cleanly.
The burly Holmes, who had a 64 on Thursday, was in the lead at 12 under when his tee shot found the water on the par-three 12th hole. Minus shoes and mis-matched socks, his first shot fell back into the lake edge. The third shot just made it to the green’s edge and he walked off with a double. On the 18th, Holmes’ drive landed in the sand dunes and though he got back on the fairway, he three-putted, the resultant triple bogey saw him finish on 73, five shots off the pace.
