Things are getting pretty interesting down there in Albany.
A sunny and really windy day on Wednesday that sent a lot of scores in the wrong direction, yielded to a more birdie-friendly day on Thursday and things are heating up down there where the rich folks hang out.
Hurricane Dorian totally avoided this pocket of wealth, a high-end resort developed by Tavistock, owner of the upscale Isleworth and Lake Nona communities in Orlando. No Dorian damage there, things are fine and dandy for this 2019 version of Tiger Woods’ own Hero World Challenge.
He’s got his Presidents Cup team on site trying to get ready for next week’s matches in Australia. Only Dustin Johnson is missing and who knows how his knee is feeling?
Doesn’t matter, the attention is huge because the Host With The Most Majors, at least in this field, is right there in the thick of it after a pretty darn good showing on Friday.
Tiger Woods went on a back-nine run on day two of his event and ended up posting a six-under par 66 that put him at six-under through 36 holes, tied for fifth. It’s important to note that tie for fifth — Woods has won this thing five times and he was never lower than a tie for sixth after 36 holes in the events he won.
Day one was looking decent for the host after 16 holes. Tiger got off to a slow start but made a move on the back nine and by the 16th, he was three-under for the day. But a bogey, double-bogey finish left him pretty grumpy.
Eldrick was in a much better mood on Thursday after he made another big move on the final nine. He kick-started the run with a sweet second shot into the par five 11th that pulled up just seven feet from the hole. He made that eagle and added birdies at 12, 14 and 16 then got his act together for the difficult final two holes with a par-par finish, a clean, bogey-free scorecard and a shot going into the last two rounds.
“Less windy today,” Woods was quick to point out as the 20-25 mile-per-hour winds of Wednesday, went down to a manageable 10 on Thursday. “Yesterday you had to play the wind on your putts,” Woods pointed out. “Today I got after it. I wanna keep creeping my way up (the leaderboard). I’ve got a chance going into the weekend.” Note the habit of players thinking “weekend” after the first two rounds. This one ends on Saturday so Tiger and his team can fly to Australia on Sunday.
Of course Tiger has a chance but he’s a full six shots behind America’s Least Favorite Golfer — Patrick Reed. Reed’s been pretty flawless with a pair of 66s that have him at 12-under. Captain Blowhard got a lot of attention when he showed up on Monday sporting a new set of irons. Even more interesting is that they aren’t Callaways or Titleist or any other name brand. The irons have Reed’s name on them along with the logo of his foundation. The irons were manufactured by a Japanese company and Reed is tight-lipped about them, not giving any details about his new sticks. They appear to be working pretty well so far.
Gary Woodland is closest to Reed at nine-under (66-69) and will play with Captain Blowhard again today.
Woodland and Reed playing well bodes well for Woods’ team but if you look down the list, there may be concern elsewhere.
At the bottom of the heap is 222-pound Bryson DeChambeau, who says he wants to get up to 230-235 pounds. Evidently the Turtle Hulk didn’t bring his “A” game. He shot 76 in the wind then 71 on Thursday, in at three-under and tied for dead-last with Tony Finau. Finau was a mess on Wednesday. He was eaten alive by the wind and barely broke 80. He rebounded after the 79 with 68 but is still three-over.
Add Pat Cantlay to the under-achievers. He’s in at 74-72, two-over.
Maybe the International team should pray for a lot of wind next week.
Anyway, first things first. Two down, two to go down in Albany.
Tiger’s in the hunt and that’s always a good thing.
Isn’t it?
