Tiger surges to 7-under after two rounds at DBC
Tiger Woods turned in another solid performance Saturday in the second round of the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston in Norton, Mass. He fired a 4-under-par 67 and is tied for 20th at 7-under 135, six strokes behind leader Sergio Garcia.
The tournament is the second of the PGA TOUR’s four FedEx Cup playoff events.
“I hit it better today,” said Woods, the current points leader. “I didn’t make much out there. Overall, it was a good enough day.”
After shooting a 1-under 35 on the front nine, Tiger toured the back nine in 3-under 32, capping the afternoon with an uphill, right-to-left 35-foot birdie putt at the par-5 18th hole.
“That was nice to get,” he said. “I hit a terrible tee shot there. It was basically the only putt I made all day.”
A two-time winner of the FedExCup, Tiger was a late starter with Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott. Tiger began the round with three straight pars, missing a three-foot birdie putt at the par-4 first hole. He broke through with an eight-foot birdie putt at the 298-yard, par-4 fourth, where he hit a 293-yard drive just short-right of the green, then plopped a sand wedge tight.
Woods recoded his only bogey at the 465-yard, par-4 sixth, where he hit his tee shot into the right fairway bunker, splashed out into the fairway, missed the green with his third shot from 106 yards, then got up-and-down. He bounced right back with a short birdie putt at the 600-yard, par-5 seventh, hitting his third shot from 144 yards three feet from the cup.
Tiger parred the eighth and ninth holes. At the latter, he hit a nice approach shot from 162 yards eight feet above the hole but missed the slick, downhill birdie putt.
On the back nine, Woods parred Nos. 10, 11 and 12. He picked up some momentum at the 451-yard, par-4 13th, hitting his second shot from 141 yards within 10 feet of the pin and drilled the birdie putt.
With a light drizzle beginning to fall on the warm, overcast day, Tiger parred Nos. 14 and 15, then birdied the 154-yard, par-3 16th hole, flagging a 9-iron eight feet below he cup. He made a nice save at the par-4 17th, where he just missed the green to the right with his approach shot from 171 yards, but nearly chipped in, tapping in for par.
At the 541-yard, par-5 18th, Woods pulled a 3-wood into the left rough, forcing him to lay up short of the green. He spun his third shot from 115 yards down a slope, then finished the round in style with the long birdie putt.
Tiger wound up hitting 16 of 18 greens and 10 of 14 fairways in regulation and used 29 putts.
Given the ideal scoring conditions, Tiger knows he will have to keep making birdies the next two rounds to make a run at the title.
“When it’s soft like this, the guys are going to go low,” he said.
Tiger begins third-round play Sunday at 11:45 a.m. ET with Hunter Mahan.
