American Tiger Woods equalled his career best score by shooting an 11-under 61 in the second round of the $4,6-million PGA Buick Open on Friday.
Woods also tied the tournament record, firing consecutive eagles for the first time in a PGA Tour tournament to sit one shot adrift of leader Vijay Singh.
”I think that front nine, I shot five-under and it wasn’t like I was pressing to shoot five-under. It was just a nice comfortable one,” Woods said. ”I’ve shot some good ones, but any time you shoot 61, it’s going to be a special day, and today was certainly one of those special rounds.”
Woods has shot a 61 two other times in his career, at the 2000 NEC Invitational, which he won, and the 1999 Byron Nelson Classic, where he tied for seventh. Both were par-70 courses.
Fijian-Indian Singh is atop the leader board after shooting a six-under 66 on Friday to get to 13-under 131.
At the end of his round, Singh was 12 shots in front of Woods, who had yet to start his second round, but that lead quickly diminished.
Woods was unable to generate any momentum on Thursday and settled for a one-under 71.
He talked about needing to get a little more out of his round on Friday to get back into contention.
On Friday, Woods went out in 31 after five birdies in his first nine holes, including three in a row starting on the par-four fifth. He went eagle-eagle-birdie-birdie in one stretch.
After a 356-yard drive, Woods stuck a seven-iron from 191 yards to within 10 feet on the par-five 13th and converted for eagle. He was just getting warmed up.
He then drove the green at the 324-yard par-four 14th and dropped a curling putt from about eig ht feet for back-to-back eagles.
Even when Woods made a mistake he was able to get himself out of it, and make it look easy. He drove into the rough on 15 but that didn’t stop him from firing his approach to inside 10 feet, leading to another birdie to get to 11-under.
”It was a fun day. I hit some beautiful shots and got the putter rolling,” said Woods, who equalled the course record set by Billy Mayfair in 2001.
”Yesterday, I didn’t do anything as far as momentum. Any time I put myself in position to get some on my side, I botched it up.
”Today was the exact opposite. I got rolling and kept it going and I had it all day.”
Defending champion Singh fired seven birdies and one bogey to grab a share of the lead.
Starting at number 10, Singh carded back-to-back birdies on 13 and 14 and added another birdie at 16.
He had his only bogey of the round on the par-3 17th. The number-two player in the world, Singh added four birdies on his final nine.
”I putted well. I hit a lot of greens and I had a lot of chances. You keep getting chances, you’re going to make some,” Singh said.
First-round leader Nick Watney, a 24-year-old rookie, shot a one-under 71 and is tied for 10th at nine-under.
Jim Furyk, the Buick Open winner in 2003, shot a 71 and is tied for 19th at seven-under.
Craig Barlow shot a five-under 67 and is alone in third at 11-under. Playing with Woods, Fred Funk shot a 66 and is in a group of six tied for fourth at 10-under. — Sapa-AFP