Tiger ties personal best, course record with 61
Tiger Woods flirted with history in the second round of the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club in warm and partly cloudy Akron, Ohio.
Although Tiger has broken 60 before, shooting a 59 at Isleworth Country Club in Orlando, Fla., with good friend Mark O’Meara, he has never done it in official competition.
It almost happened Friday.
Woods fashioned seven birdies and an eagle to match his best-ever score on the PGA TOUR with a bogey-free, 9-under-par 61. It marked the fourth time in his career he has shot the number, including 2000 at Firestone, when he won one of his seven tournament titles on the course.
Not only did Tiger again equal the course record, he vaulted to a seven-stroke lead on the elite field, which includes 48 of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Rankings. Woods has a 36-hole total of 13-under 127, and Keegan Bradley and Chris Wood share second at 134.
“It felt really good,” Woods said. “I got off to a great start and I just let the round build from there.”
Tiger reached 9-under with five holes to play but couldn’t go any lower. He had good birdie chances at the 216-yard, par-3 15th and 400-yard, par-4 17th holes, but missed putts from nine and seven feet, respectively.
“I certainly could have done it,” Woods said. “I’ve done it before. I felt very relaxed out there.”
Tiger said he blocked the birdie putt at 15 and talked himself out of the read at 17. However, he made a great par-save at the 457-yard, par-4 18th, where he blocked his drive right, hit a tree with his second shot and wound up in dirt near a hospitality area. He received a free drop, punched his third shot onto the back fringe, then poured in an improbable 26-foot par putt.
It was Woods’ best 18-hole score since he fired a final-round 10-under-par 62 in the 2002 Honda Classic at PGA National.
A late front nine starter with 21-year-old Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, Tiger got off to a torrid start by holing a three-foot birdie putt at the 399-yard, par-4 first hole. At the 516-yard, par-5 second, Woods reached the green in two with an iron and drained a 20-foot eagle putt from left of the hole. He added another birdie at the 442-yard, par-4 third, knocking his approach to 15 feet and making the putt.
Tiger followed with three straight pars, two of the scrambling variety. At the uphill 203-yard, par-3 fourth, he got up-and-down from the back left bunker, splashing out to three feet.
Woods did even better at the 469-yard, par-4 sixth, where he pulled his drive left and the ball wound up at the base of a tree. Faced with an awkward stance, he had no choice but to punch out sideways toward the fairway, the ball settling in the first cut of the right rough. From there, Tiger hit his third shot from 188 yards to 25 feet left of the hole and rolled in the putt.
“That was big,” Woods said. “It kept the momentum going.”
At the 199-yard, par-3 seventh, Woods hit a high cut with a 7-iron and the ball stopped three feet beneath the cup for another birdie, marking his seventh consecutive one-putt green. Tiger parred the par-4 eighth and ninth holes, just missing a 17-foot birdie attempt at the latter, and made the turn in 5-under 30.
Still in a birdie mood, Woods blistered the back nine with four straight birdies. He made an eight-foot putt at the 410-yard, par-4 10th; holed a six-footer at the 418-yard, par-4 11th; swished a 20-footer at the 177-yard, par-3 12th; then sunk a long birdie putt at the 471-yard, par-4 13th.
Tiger saved par from the back fringe at the 467-yard, par-4 14th, then parred in to complete a memorable round.
“I was only at 9-under-par, so it’s not a feeling that I’m uncomfortable with,” Woods said. “When I shot 59, I was 13 deep at the time, so that’s well off where I was today. Nine, I’ve been there so many times, and I’ve been 10 and 11 before, too. There was still a lot of golf to be played and anything could have happened.”
The par-saves at Nos. 6 and 18 were monumental and vintage Tiger.
“I think big par putts are bigger than making birdies,” Woods said. “I didn’t drop any shots today and kept the card clean. Those are nice feelings.”
After using 13 putts through the first 11 holes, Woods finished with 22 for the fourth time in his PGA TOUR career. His lowest total is 21, recorded in the third round of the 2004 PLAYERS Championship. He also hit 13 of 18 greens and nine of 14 fairways in regulation.
While Tiger likes his position on the leaderboard and has a great track record at Firestone, he knows the tournament is only half-over and good scores can be had, especially on the rain-softened greens.
“We have a long way to go,” Woods said. “It put me in a good position going into the weekend.”
This marks the 47th time in Woods’ career he has held or shared a 36-hole lead on the PGA TOUR, and he has gone on to win 36. On 10 occasions, he has led by four or more strokes after two rounds and has produced nine victories.
Tiger tees off Saturday at 1:10 p.m. ET on the first hole with Bradley and Wood. Players are paired in threesomes instead of twosomes and are starting on split tees due to the threat of inclement weather.
