By Rahul Banerji
A sliding security guard almost stole the limelight at Augusta National, clipping Tiger Woods on the heel in a bid to keep himself between the golfer and his fans, but Woods shrugged off the distraction quickly to close the day one shot behind the lead group and well placed to strike on Moving Day.
As Tiger headed for the fairway on the 14th hole after his second shot, the guard ran in to hold back eager fans. Instead of helping the situation, he slipped on the wet Augusta National turf and hit Tiger on the heel, but the alert golfer was already moving out of the way.
In the event, it was no more than a graze and Woods walked on after testing his right ankle.
“Accidents happen, we move on,” Woods said later. “Other than having four knee surgeries and four back surgeries I’m great. I’ve had galleries run over me. When you play in front of a lot of people, things happen. … It’s all good.”
Birdie to boot
He birdied the hole too, getting to 5-under overall and for good measure, knocked in one more and get to one shot behind the five tied atop the leader-board.
Having gained five spots on day two, Tiger was content with his progress. “I feel like I played my own way back into the tournament.
“I was just very patient today, felt very good to be out there doing what I was doing. This is now three straight majors that I’ve been in the mix and so it’s good stuff.”
Up ahead of him are season’s four-time winner Francesco Molinari, Aussies Jason Day and Adam Scott, US Open and PGA Championship winner Brooka Koepka and South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen. Among the born-again Italian’s titles are the BMW PGA Championship, the Quicken Loans National, The Open, and the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard.
Plenty of competition
“There’s obviously loads of great players in golf right now,” said Molinari, here following a third-place at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play.
“And you know, I think I’m getting the attention that I deserve, and it’s not something that I seek or that I want desperately. I’m happy to go about my business and keep playing good golf.”
Day too had a rocky moment or two, needing attention for a back ache that he picked up while setting off to the course in the morning. Day went to kiss his three-year-old daughter Lucy and his back twanged but he got short shrift from his wife Ellie.
‘Suck it up’
“You need to suck it up” (and get out there), she informed him and the burly Aussie duly delivered a 5-under 67 and 7-under 137 on aggregate.
Meanwhile, Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat settled for a level par 72 on Friday where he made the weekend rounds just four shots off the lead.
The 29-year-old, who opened with a 69 on Thursday, traded three birdies against as many bogeys to end the second round in T16 with a two-day aggregate of 3-under 141, maintaining his perfect record at the year’s opening major where he has made the cut in three appearances.
Injury scare
Kiradech, the first Thai to play full-time on the PGA Tour, kept himself on the fringe of contention but he also endured an injury scare after producing a gutsy recovery shot on 17.
Kiradech drained a 16-foot birdie on seven after dropping a shot two holes back followed by another dropped shot on 11. He responded brilliantly by nearly shooting a hole-in-one at the par-3 12th hole by sticking his tee shot next to the pin.
“I played some good golf. The winds were everywhere and it’s very tricky and my putting wasn’t sharp. I had chances from around 10 feet, about three or four chances but overall even par on this course is acceptable,” said Kiradech, who finished T15 and T44 in 2016 and 2018 here.
Kiradech, who played alongside Japan’s Shugo Imahira and recent WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play champion Kevin Kisner, took some time to shake off pain in his right knee after tumbling onto the Augusta turf following a hooked approach shot around some pine trees on the 17th hole.
“I think I’ll be fine. I felt sharp pain on my right knee and I fell down. It took a few minutes to recover,” he said.
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