Tiger struggles in the second round of JBWere Australian Masters
With a 72 in the second round Tiger Woods seems to be in trouble once again at the JBWere Australian Masters.
The defending champion opened the tournament with a 69, but failed to rake birdies in the second round of Australian Masters, which is taking place at the Victoria Golf Club, Melbourne. He settled with a score of one-over-par, when the winds denied running
in his favour.
Nine shots above him was Adam Bland, the man, who portrayed the real meaning of having an edge of a home ground. The Aussie teed off from the front nine to draw the first birdie of the show on the eighth hole.
However, the real drama started in the closing holes, although the conditions were against the short game players. Bland birdied the 13th hole to heat his engines, parred the next, and smashed four consecutive birdies starting all the way from
15th.
Tiger is least predictable now days. Only a day back, the former World number one smashed a good number of crispy shots and on Friday, he failed to save par. Woods encountered a bunker on the fifth hole, which broke his momentum. Owing to the early loss,
Woods made consecutive bogeys on the back nine to fall further behind.
Commenting on his game Woods said, “I wasn't quite as sharp with my irons. When the wind blows this hard, I tend to revert to my old motion. I struggled with that. It was a little more difficult than I thought it would be".
On the second spot was former Las Vegas winner Andre Stolz. He smashed a 67 with the help of six birdies and two bogeys. Three strokes below was Daniel Gaunt, who secured one-over in the round to make an aggregate of 5-under-par.
Another surprise attack was put forward by the Spaniard. Sergio Garcia teed off from the back nine and closed it with three birdies out of which two were on the closing holes. Garcia stroked three more power shots in the front and composed his best score
of the year.
Speaking to the press Garcia said, "I'm just trying to shoot the best score I can. Even though it was quite difficult with the conditions, it seemed like we were always making the right decisions. Put that with how I was hitting the ball ... to be honest
with you, that wasn't the lowest score I could have shot".
Garcia was on the verge of falling out of contention after opening with a 73 on Thursday. To avoid trouble, the player switched to a perfect short game. Garcia made birdie on all the par 5s, and picked up an astonishing birdie on the third hole. He wrapped
it up with a sand wedge that flashed the ball from 8 feet into the ninth pin.
2009 runner-up Stuart Appleby, not listed among the top players in tournament advertisements, smashed a 69, and took the 11th spot. Camilo Villegas joined Tiger Woods in the 16th group after he fired a round of 70.
First round leader Alistair Presnell failed to keep up with the first impression and drafted six bogeys and two double-bogeys in a round that ended with three birdies. Robert Allenby joined his team by smashing a 72, which at least was good enough to make
the cut.
This is it for the second round of the JBWere Australian Masters, which was staged at Victoria Golf Club in Melbourne. Last year Tiger Woods stood on the winner’s podium with 82 titles in his bag, which was quite opposite to what is being predicted after
this performance. Tiger requires a victory in Australia to enter the next year as a winner.
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