After a long slump, Tiger Woods cruised to a spot only one off the leader at the Quicken Loans National Tournament heading into play on Saturday.
Woods has been struggling all year to get his game back. The golf giant showed some instances of his old form at Masters, but today at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club Woods showed his old self.
“Overall, I hit the ball really well today,” Woods said on Friday afternoon. “I was very pleased with that and made a few putts, but also I missed a bunch, too. This could have been one of those really low rounds … I’m in a good spot heading into the weekend.”
Woods noted that it is all due to hard work.
“People want the immediate fix, the one tip that’s going to work for the rest of their life,” he said. “It doesn’t work that way. Takes time to build it.”
Woods jumped off to a great start with four pars in a row, something he hasn’t been able to achieve for some time. But he later bungled a drive that led to his only bogey of the day. Still, he said that one bad swing was a key motivator.
“Got me a little fired up. Got me a little more focused on what I’m doing out there instead of just hitting a shot,” he said.
Noting that he “putted pretty aggressively” during the day, Woods also told the media that he looked forward to the weekend’s game.
Woods chases his 80th win at the Quicken Loans National. At 79 wins, Tiger Woods stands three victories away from tying Sam Snead, the winningest golfer in history.
Regardless, Snead had a 30-year career to amass those wins and while Tiger has only been at it for 18, he already ranks as the number-two ranked golfer in terms of victories. Jack Nicklaus places third with a career record of 73 wins.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
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