Woods’ day is better than average

Just after 7 o’clock Friday night, Tiger Woods climbed into a cart, rode through a crowded parking lot and pulled up at the driving range at Oakmont Country Club. He met his coach and his caddie, and they set up shop at the far end of the range.

Woods went straight to work, again, even though he had not yet shaken off the dust and the grime and the sweat from a 5 1/2 -hour grind of the U.S. Open. Woods grabbed a club and started to practice his backswing as Hank Haney offered words of advice.

As for Woods’ four-over 74, there were a few words of description.

“Well, I don’t know what the average score was,” he said, “but I think I shot under par.”

It should surprise no one that the average score Friday at Oakmont was 76.9.

Five shots behind Angel Cabrera and tied for 13th, Woods has a chance, and that’s nothing to take lightly after what happened on a freaky Friday at Oakmont.

Consider that the second-, third- and fourth-ranked players in the world -- Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk and Adam Scott -- were a combined 24 over par -- on the day.

Only two players broke 70.

There were 35 rounds in the 80s.

No one is under par after two rounds.

Don’t rule out Woods, not just yet.

“I’ve won this championship before, and I know what it takes,” he said.

His workday began hours earlier when he left his rented house and showed up at Oakmont to start pounding balls on the range. Woods went to the putting green for last-minute touches 15 minutes before his tee time and wasted little time.

He paused momentarily, to watch Aaron Baddeley’s bunker shot in front of the ninth green, which actually occupies the front portion of the putting green.

It’s an unusual setup, but then Oakmont is anything but typical. It is, as Steve Stricker said, a curse of a course:

“You look like a fool sometimes.”

That’s not a look that Woods favors. He rolled one more ball on the putting green and watched it disappear, handed his putter to caddie Steve Williams and walked toward the 10th tee.

Haney, his coach, patted Woods on the back and he took a deep breath before traveling a narrow path cleared by marshals holding back fans straining against the gallery ropes.

You could cut the symbolism with a two-iron. The world’s best player taking on the world’s toughest course. Tiger being thrown to the wolves.

He already knew that Paul Casey had found a 66 out there, so a good score was at least a possibility.

Alas, not this time, not the way Oakmont behaved.

Woods steered in a four-footer to save par at his first hole, the 10th, but bogeyed the 11th when his second shot dropped in the rough. Then he rolled in a 13-foot putt to birdie the monstrous, par-five 12th, which was played from the back tee -- a mere 667 yards long.

By the time Woods reached the 15th hole, his gallery was five deep. They didn’t thin out after he left his 10-foot par putt clinging to the edge for a bogey.

He was still in decent shape, two over for the day, when he reached his 11th hole, the 341-yard, par-four second. Woods drove into rough, managed only to chop it into more rough, then chipped out into a bunker, knocked it onto the green and sank a clutch six-footer for bogey. It could have been much worse.

After spending time in the long grass, Woods changed locations and found sand. He hit his drive into the Church Pews bunker on the left side of the fairway at No. 4 and dropped another shot with his fifth bogey on a long afternoon that was getting even longer.

At the par-three sixth, Woods hit it to 10 feet. He made the right-to-left breaking putt for a birdie and reached four over, but drove into the rough at the seventh and wound up with another bogey.

He finished with a par at the last hole, the ninth, near the same spot where he had stood and watched Baddeley hours earlier. Woods shook hands with playing partners Geoff Ogilvy and Richie Ramsay, stopped for a couple of quick interviews, then hopped into the cart for his trip to the driving range.

Maybe he will find the answer out there in the dirt, or maybe it’s for someone else to find.

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thomas.bonk@latimes.com