Tiger improves but still trails leaders Scheffler, Speith by yards

By Rahul Banerji

Tiger Woods bettered his opening round by five shots but continued to show traces of rust on day two of the 2023 Hero World Challenge at Albany on Friday.

For his part, Scottie Scheffler (69-66) showed no signs of having been away from golf since the Ryder Cup to climb into the shared lead with 2014 winner Jordan Speith (68-67).

Tiger followed his first round 73 with a 2-under 70 to sit 15^th on 1-over 145 for 36 holes, 10 shots behind the leaders but warned, “Unfortunately, I just haven’t finished off my last two rounds the way I would like to and I’ve got two more days to improve.”

On Friday, Tiger was walking better and showed flashes of brilliance, finding 10 of 13 fairways and driving over 370 yards on the 15^th hole. 

“I cleaned it up a little bit from yesterday,” the event host said later.

“I didn’t quite have the finish I would like to have., missed a couple of putts coming in and a couple of little mistakes.

“Overall, it was a better start … better commitment, I kept it going with that today. I just wish I made a couple more putts to keep the round going.”

Missed advantage

After drilling his drives and irons to inside five and six feet and finding four birdies on the front nine, Woods could not consolidate the gains.

He had dropped shots on holes 13, 15 and 16 to take some of the sheen away from his play but did have one last birdie with a 30-foot putt on 17 as some consolation. 

“I’ve played two tournaments all year. I’m rusty,” said Woods. “This golf course will bring that out of you a little bit. Some of the pin locations … you can run the table here or you can go the other way very quickly.”

Runner-up in 2021 and 2022 behind Viktor Hovland, Scheffler was 7-under for the day through 17 holes but dropped a shot with a messy 18^th hole.

Twice a winner this season, Scheffler’s 6-under moved him to 9-under, where he was joined by Spieth, who followed an adventurous first-round 68 with a bogey-free 67.

Scheffler commented later, “I drove it well, gave myself a lot of chances. Yeah, that’s probably the thing I did best.

“Then for the most part I kept a clean card. I got a bad break on No. 8, made a bogey, and then got in a weird spot there on 18, but outside of that I played pretty solid.”

Good lines

Added Spieth, “I was really diligent about where I was lined up, the intent on the shot, not trying to squeeze stuff in certain places. I got a couple of balls on the green off the tee on the two drivable holes, which was obviously a bonus, especially on seventh.”

First-round co-leader Brian Harman turned around a disastrous start of three bogeys in four holes with a blazing 5-under over last five holes to get to 8-under 136 and third place.

Justin Thomas carded a 5-under 67 despite back-to-back bogeys on the 11th and 12th. He was 7-under and fourth, Tony Finau (71), Matt Fitzpatrick (68) and Collin Morikawa (69) were bunched at 6-under in tied fifth spot.

Hovland struggled to a second straight 73 and was tied 16th.

Scores and round 3 pairings

Wyndham Clark (76-73), Will Zalatoris (81-68)

Keegan Bradley (72-74) and Sam Burns (71-76)

Tiger Woods (75-70) and Viktor Hovland (73-73)

Justin Rose (72-71) and Rickie Fowler (74-70)

Lucas Glover (71-71) and Max Homa (69-73)

Cameron Young (69-71) and Jason Day (71-69)

Tony Finau (67-71) and Sepp Straka (73-67)

Matt Fitzpatrick (70-68) and Collin Morikawa (69-69)

Brian Harman (67-69) and Justin Thomas (70-67)

Scottie Scheffler (69-66) and Jordan Spieth (67-68)

Also read: Harman, Finau co-lead Hero World Challenge as Tiger stumbles