CHARLOTTE – Tiger Woods has been telling anyone who’ll listen since his alarm-inducing tie for 22nd at the Masters last month that he’s been getting “close” with his supposedly-slumping game.
Yesterday, Woods showed just how close he really is, seizing control of the Wachovia Championship at Quail Hollow Country Club by firing a 6-under-par 66 in the second round to take the lead entering weekend play at 9-under, two shots clear of the rest of the field.
“It was a good day,” Woods said after his nearly-flawless round, which included just 22 putts covering an astonishingly-low total of 140 feet. “More than anything, I gave myself looks at the putts and I made just about every one of them. It was a nice combination.”
When Woods is striking the ball and putting as well as he has in his first two rounds here, it makes for a dangerous cocktail for his opponents. The last 18 times Woods has entered the weekend with the lead he’s won the tournament.
“He played a wonderful round,” said Kirk Triplett, the first-round leader after his course-record 64 on Thursday. “I’m just glad he didn’t keep it going. He was 6-under through 12 (actually 11) and I thought I was going to have the course record for less than 12 hours. You like to have them for a couple of days, anyway. You know, give the ink a chance to dry on the scorecard they’re going to put up in the locker room.”
Triplett, unlike Woods, was unable to follow his opening round with an equal or better one. He followed his 8-under opener with a 1-over-par 73 yesterday and stands two shots behind Woods entering the weekend at 7-under, tied with Notah Begay and Arron Oberholser for second and just ahead of five players at 6-under, including Vijay Singh and Stuart Appleby.
Woods’ second round tied his third lowest of the year and put him in great position to increase the margin today while playing in the final group. This week marked the first time this year Woods has opened an event with back-to-back rounds in the 60s. With the World Match Play his only victory this year, Woods is seeing his first win of the season in a stroke play event.
Everything Woods is doing this week is tied into his preparation for next month’s U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.
He’s expected to play only two more events before the Open (next week’s Byron Nelson and Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial), so a win here this week could send Woods on a surge toward the next major, not to mention help stave off Singh, who began this week talking about catching Woods in the World Golf Rankings.
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Woods yesterday slammed the door shut on any notion that he might play the Buick Classic at Westchester Country Club the week before the U.S. Open next month. Asked by The Post if there were any chance he might play, Woods, who’s sponsored by Buick, said, “The week before the U.S. Open? No way.”