Tiger Woods plays it safe yet intelligent and lucky
Brandt Snedeker may have broken the tournament record by shooting 130 after 36-holes equalling Nick Faldo’s record but the highlight of the day came from none other than Tiger Woods.
Snedeker shot 64 in the second round to match Adam Scott’s first round score. He managed the score in tough conditions that caused trouble for players like Lee Westwood and Rory Mcllroy at the Royal Lytham.
Tiger Woods may not be at the top of leader board but he is certainly in contention for the title. Tiger shot a second successive 67 taking him to 6-under-par after the first two rounds.
At the moment, Tiger is lurking four shots behind the leader Snedeker and three shots behind the Australian, Adam Scott.
The conditions did cause some trouble for Tiger as he sprayed quite a few shots around but his chips and putts saved the day for him. The fourteen-time major champion did not use woods to tee off, instead, he used irons most of the time.
Tiger was playing safe rather than being aggressive. Probably that is why he used irons so that he kept the ball in control, rather than to blast it. His shots at the greens were pretty safe as well. On most of the holes, he used a two putts strategy at
the greens.
However, he did get stuck at the 11th hole. At the 11th his tee shot landed into the rough area just around the fairway. Nevertheless, he miscued his next shot and it landed in the rough again.
Surely conditions were getting to Tiger now. In the end, Tiger ended the hole with 6 shots scoring a bogey. Still, he never lost hope and courage, and he held on until the last three holes.
On the 16th, 17th and 18th, there was late charge from Tiger Woods, he showed the skills and courage of a true champion. On the 16th he birdied, followed by a par on the 17th. On the 18th
Tiger’s second shot went straight into the bunker.
However, Tiger held his composure and took his time measuring each bit of his shot and he could not have made a more perfect shot from the bunker. The moment ball hit the green.
Tiger knew it was going in and bulls eye, a birdie on the last hole from the former world number one. At the press conference Tiger said,
"It was not as hard as it may have looked," Woods said. "I was on the upslope. I could take out that steepness coming off the bunker and land the ball on the flat. So just threw it up there, and I played about a cup outside the left, and it landed on my
spot and rolled to the right".
Tiger Woods was extremely happy with the birdie. There was a loud cry of joy from him pumping his fist in the air.
Tags: