Woods works to hang on
It won't rank as Tiger Woods' most dramatic turnaround, but the four-time Masters Tournament champion avoided disaster in Amen Corner and kept his quest for a third consecutive major victory alive.
"I could have easily played myself right out of the tournament today, and I didn't do that," Woods said Friday.
Despite hitting two balls into Rae's Creek and missing half the greens and two-thirds of the fairways, Woods rode a turbulent down-and-up round to 2-over 74. That left him tied for 15th, five strokes behind the co-leaders heading into the weekend.
"I turned 90 into a 74 today," Woods said. "I salvaged a bad round today, and yesterday I threw away a good round. I'm still right there in the ballgame."
Woods got back in the game with birdies on Nos. 15 and 17.
"I just hung in there the best I could," he said. "I was grinding it out pretty hard today and trying not to lose touch with the leaders. I did do that. I made a couple of birdies at the end, which was huge, and a couple of great saves on the back nine to keep myself in contention."
It looked bleak for Woods after four front-nine bogeys and a lone birdie led him to 39. After a birdie at No. 10 brought him back to 3-over for the tournament, he nearly crashed in Amen Corner with a bogey on No. 11 and shots in the water on Nos. 12 and 13.
Yet after taking drops and the penalty strokes, Woods drained a 25-footer to save bogey on 12 and pitched to five feet to save par on 13.
"That was a pretty sweet little pitch, and I was basically able to salvage two mistakes," Woods said. "The whole idea is never make a double around this place, and you don't make doubles, you don't make 3-putts here, usually you're going to be in contention to win the tournament."
Woods has faced 36-hole deficits in three of his four Masters victories, including a six-shot gap behind Chris DiMarco in 2005.
However, Woods has never had so many players standing between him and the lead and come back to win at Augusta National Golf Club. He trailed DiMarco by two shots in 2001 and was tied for second; in 2005, despite the larger margin, he was alone in third.
In 2002, Woods trailed Vijay Singh by four shots and was tied for fourth.
Each of those years, Woods always managed to go low enough in the third round to assume at least a share of the 54-hole lead. He's never rallied from a 54-hole deficit in any of his 12 major victories.
"I'll just have to continue plodding along," Woods said. "Most Masters you can make a few birdies here and there and get on a roll. If you look at most of the guys on the board, they really haven't done that. No one's really made birdies in bunches. They're really hard to come by, and you can also make a lot mistakes and have some train wrecks out there. Keep plodding along and see what happens."
Considering the difficult conditions, the forecast for colder weather and the low-profile names on the leaderboard, Woods is comfortable, if not pleased with his position.
"I always like it this way," he said. "With the conditions coming up, we will all have to grind. It doesn't matter whether you are a rookie or a veteran."
Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.
Rainier Ehrhardt/Staff
