Tiger is Back
Five years ago Woods’s chip at the short 16th hole hung on the edge of the cup before toppling in – and this time it was an 18ft birdie putt on the 1st. The crowd sighed first as the attempt hovered, but then roared when it dropped for a three that lifted the world No1 – playing his first tournament since the sex scandal that took him out of the game five months ago – to only one shot behind Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter.
However, it was Phil Mickelson who was the first to catch the two Englishmen when he birdied the 2nd and 3rd to climb to eight under. His stay at the top was only temporary on this occasion, however, as Westwood rolled in a 22-footer on the tricky opening green to go to nine under.
That was a massive bonus for the European Tour’s No1 from last season as his drive had finished close to the trees down the left. Poulter was even wilder, hooking on to the adjoining 9th fairway, but the World Match Play champion was wide enough to be able to get over all the trees and on to the putting surface, from where he saved his four.
Neither Westwood nor Poulter nor Woods could birdie the long 2nd – Westwood had eagled it in his second-round 69 – but Woods then holed a curling 25-footer at the next and went back into a tie for second.
Again it prompted a fist-pump, but he followed it with a bogey on the 240-yard 4th for the second day running.
