SAN DIEGO — There were plenty of signs that Tiger Woods was truly back on Friday at Torrey Pines Golf Course.
And not merely the handwritten, cardboard one that one fan kept waving overhead, reading, “Welcome Back, Tiger.”
For instance, Woods’ group at one point intersected with a threesome containing Orlando’s Patrick Sheehan, a rookie. Sheehan’s gang was cruising along at an impressive 12 under collectively, yet nary a soul was watching.
Woods, of course, was shadowed by his traditional throng of devotees. Even the hang gliders hovering above the cliffs of the nearby Pacific Ocean kept detouring over the area where Woods was playing.
Yet the biggest sign came on his scorecard.
Woods shot a 6-under-par 66 in the second round and moved to within two strokes of the lead at the Buick Invitational, indicating that any concerns about his surgically repaired knee were, well, needless.
After completing the final nine holes of his first round in the morning, Woods closed out his 27-hole marathon in trademark, flashy fashion. He chipped in for eagle from 100 feet on his final hole.
“The funny thing was that my leg felt better,” he said.
Playing the final five holes in 4 under will cure the hitch in anybody’s get-a-long. Lame, this wasn’t — the round included five birdies and an eagle and his 66 was the low round of the tournament on the brutish, 7,600-yard South Course.
Although Brad Faxon and Lakeland’s Marco Dawson share the lead at 10 under, all prying eyes were on Woods, who is tied for eighth, one stroke ahead of a group including Phil Mickelson and Darren Clarke.
Playing in his first tournament of the year, Woods’ opening round Thursday was suspended after nine holes. Friday, he teed off at 7:35 a.m. PDT, and said his left knee was a little sore in the damp conditions, yet he pieced together a 70. He called it “sloggy.”
Well, it was sloppy and foggy.
The afternoon was postcard perfect, though, which is when his knee and game came around. While he is still visibly rusty with his driver — the last club he was cleared to hit by his doctor after the mid-December surgery — his irons made up the difference.
“It’s just timing and trust,” he said. “Toward the end I just said, ‘To hell with it,’ and just got up there and hit it, let it go. If I snap it out of bounds, I snap it out of bounds.”
Woods was pleased enough with the proceedings that he committed Friday to play at next week’s Nissan Open in Los Angeles and is likely to play the following week at the World Match Play Championship, too.
If he gets his driver straightened out, he might just win this thing. He hit only seven fairways in the second round, three of them with irons, so he got up close and personal with more than a few ducking fans in the gallery.
“If I can just get the ball in play, I feel pretty good about my chances from there,” Woods said. “I just need to get it in play somehow.”
