Tiger Woods brilliantly clawed his way towards a seventh WGC – Cadillac Championship success with a PGA Tour career best of 17 birdies over two rounds of the Doral course.
Never before has the 14-time Major winner produced as many birdies over the first two days of Tour event since joining the Tour in September 1996.
Woods added a second round 65 to his opening 66 to move two strokes clear of the Blue Monster field at 13-under par.
“I played better today but not initially as the first couple of holes were not very good at all,” he said.
Tiger Woods on route to a PGA Tour best of 17 birdies over the opening 36-holes of the WGC – Cadillac Championship. (Photo – www.pgatour.com)
“The first good shot I hit was at four and once I hit that one on four, I felt really good about it.”
Woods had pared his opening three holes but the birdie at the fourth was the start of a remarkable run for the 37-year old when Woods went – two birdies in a row, followed by a par, then two birdies in a row at 7 and 8, then a par at 9 and back-to-back birdies again at 10 and 11.
He then birdied the 13the hole for a first time since 2006 where he a 4-iron into the green but dropped a shot at the 14th but then birdied 16 before ending with two pars.
“This sort of round today keeps the momentum going,” he said.
“I had a bad bogey at 14 but bounced straight back with a birdie at 16 and sort of picked up from where I left off from.
“But it’s still a tough track and if the wind blows and with the greens this fast, they are going to dry out.
“The good thing is that I am starting to play as well as I did at Torrey Pines.”
While Woods is looking to win the event for a seventh time he is also out to become the first player this year to win two events in the 10 PGA Tour events staged to date on this year’s 2013 PGA Tour.
And after hinting during last week’s Honda Classic his game was getting back to where it was when he won January’s Farmers Insurance Open at his beloved Torrey Pines course, and venue also of his last Major victory in the 2008 US Open.
“I was saying last week I wasn’t very far off and I’m really putting it together and I’ve put it together so far this week,” he added.
“I think now it is important that we continue making birdies out here because I don’t think the wind is suppose to blow on Sunday so with conditions like this you’re going to have to take advantage.”
“Most of the par fives are reachable and many of the pins are pretty accessible. The only thing is that down grain and downhill putts are really fast right now and the greens are really drying out.
“I think also as this is the last big event they pretty well care as come Monday they are going to blow up the course, anyway so they are going to test us.”
