Woods Ends a Wild 66 With Eagle

It took nearly 27 holes in one day and 19 errant tee shots over the first two rounds of the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines Golf Course, but late Friday afternoon, Tiger Woods finally gave fans what they had come to see.

A Tiger-esque shot. An exclamation that he was back. A statement that the PGA Tour is not going to be the same as it has been during his five-week absence to begin the season.

Woods, making his 2003 season debut after recovering from knee surgery, induced a roar from the relatively subdued crowd when he holed a 34-yard chip shot for eagle on the 613-yard par-five ninth hole on the South Course to complete a six-under-par 66 in the second round and pull himself into contention.

Table

Woods completed nine holes of his first-round 70 Friday morning on the North course and has a two-round total of eight-under 136 through two rounds, two shots behind co-leaders Brad Faxon and Marco Dawson.

His 66 was the best score all tournament on the longer, more difficult South course and even more impressive considering a second consecutive round with a balky driver. Woods hit only nine of 28 fairways through the first two rounds and three of those came while using an iron.

“After a long day like today, to end on that one was pretty cool,” Woods said of his eagle.

Much cooler than most of the tee shots he hit. After hitting only two of 14 fairways in the first round, he hit six drives into the right rough in the second round and another into the left rough. His drive on the fourth hole landed in the fairway of the adjacent fifth fairway. It got so bad that Woods, who started on No. 10, left his driver in the bag for the latter part of his front nine and hit irons off the tee on holes 14, 15 and 17. He hit the fairway with each iron shot.

“You know, it was just timing,” Woods said. “It’s going to take a while. A lot of it is just getting up there and getting the reps. I haven’t been able to hit driver that often [since the surgery]. With that in mind, I need to be realistic. It’s going to come around eventually, but it doesn’t happen overnight.”

Maybe it doesn’t need to happen. Woods still managed five birdies to go along with a bogey and his closing eagle. The field averaged 73.779 on the South Course Friday and the 66 by Woods had at least one opponent in awe.

“I’ll tell you what, it seemed like every time I missed the fairway today I made a bogey,” said Arron Oberholser, the first-round leader who shot 70 on the South Course Friday and is a shot behind the leaders. “When he’s shooting 66 and he can’t find Earth with his driver, if he finds Earth this weekend, he’s going to be hard to beat, really hard to beat.”

Woods finished with booming drives on his final two holes that split the fairway.

“It’s just timing and trust,” Woods said. “Toward the end I just

With the driver going haywire, Woods made his birdies with his irons. He birdied the par-three 11th hole, used an iron off the tee on the 14th and made birdie, then birdied the par-three 16th.

But with the course saturated from rain over the last two days, keeping the driver in the bag wasn’t an option. He hit driver on every par four and par five on the back nine but missed every fairway until the final two holes. A hot putter -- Woods needed only 27 putts in the second round -- also helped.

“[Irons] are the clubs I’ve been hitting the most,” Woods said. “If anything, I knew my driver would be the last club to come around. It’s a matter of time before I get into a rhythm again. If I can just get the ball in play, I feel pretty good about my chances from there. I just need to get it in play somehow.”

Told how many fairways Woods hit, Oberholser did a double take.

“Total or on the back side?” he asked. Told it was nine fairways in two days, he couldn’t believe it.

“The rough is five inches, six inches in spots,” Oberholser said. “I mean the guy is a beast. He’s strong. I mean he can maneuver his ball out of six-inch rough, that’s impressive.”

Fred Funk, Briny Baird, Jonathan Kaye and Dennis Paulson are tied with Oberholser at nine under. Neal Lancaster, Steven Alker and Bob Tway are tied with Woods at eight under. Phil Mickelson and Fred Couples are among a group of five players at seven under.

The cut came at one-under 143 and Woods extended his streak of made cuts to 97.

Among those missing the cut were defending champion Jose Maria Olazabal, Craig Stadler, Stuart Appleby and Peter Jacobsen.

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Leaderboard

Scores after Friday’s second round at the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines North Course (6,874 yards) and South Course (7,568), Par 72:

*--* Marco Dawson...68s-66n--134 -10 Brad Faxon...70s-64n--134 -10 Fred Funk...71s-64n--135 -9 Jonathan Kaye...68n-67s--135 -9 Dennis Paulson...68n-67s--135 -9 Arron Oberholser...65n-70s--135 -9 Briny Baird...70s-65n--135 -9 Neal Lancaster...71s-65n--136 -8 Tiger Woods...70n-66s--136 -8 Steven Alker...69n-67s--136 -8 Bob Tway...68s-68n--136 -8

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