In stellar second round, Woods makes all right moves

By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents

DORAL, Fla. -- Tiger Woods stewed about that bogey on the 18th hole Thursday afternoon until he got to the harbor where his yacht, Privacy, was moored.

Tiger Woods' eagle at the 12th was one of two on the day. (Little/WireImage)

Inside the Numbers

Woods thru 36 Holes

Category Total Rank Eagles 2 1 Birdies 10 T7 Pars 21 T55 Bogeys 3 T68 Double Bogeys 0 N/A Other 0 N/A Driving Accuracy 50.0% T34 Driving Distance 304.8 yds. T13 Greens in Regulation 72.2% T4 Putts per Round 27.0 T20 Putts per GIR 1.654 T17 Sand Saves 66.7% T22

As soon as his 9-month-old daughter, Sam, came crawling toward her daddy, though, all was forgotten. Literally, as well as figuratively.

"Then I don't even know what I shot after that," Woods said, cueing the big smile that is as much his trademark as those prodigious drives. "That's one of the cool things about seeing Sam when I go home."

The toddler won't need to work her magic Friday evening, though. Her dad should already be smiling after Friday's round of 66 that left Woods at 11 under and one stroke off the pace set by Geoff Ogilvy at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship.

Woods finished off the round with a flourish Friday, not wallowing in frustration after that three-putt bogey. And he was already celebrating that big breaking 24-footer for birdie at No. 9 -- thrusting his putter into the air about 10 inches before the ball actually curled into the cup.

Woods said he got two "teaches" at the ninth hole from playing partners, Paul Casey and Louis Oosthuizen, a 25-year-old product of Ernie Els' junior golf program. The young South African's unsuccessful 52-foot putt was particularly instructive.

"After watching Louis's putt, you could see it was breaking a lot, but all of a sudden it straightened out and then kind of rocked back to the right the last foot or two," Woods said. "I adjusted my aim just a touch.

"Once I started seeing it straighten out, I knew it was going to be in."

Woods also played the four par 5s in 5 under on Friday, making a pair of eagles and a 9-foot birdie putt on the eighth hole. He holed a bunker shot at the 12th to get his round off to a positive start, then set up the second eagle with a deadly 7-iron from 189 yards that rode the wind and settled 7 feet from the pin at the first hole.

The last time Woods had two eagles in a round was at the 2007 Buick Invitational last year.

"(I) had just a simple little bunker shot," Woods recalled. "Kept telling myself, make sure you hit it hard enough because it's uphill, into the wind and into the grain. Make sure I fly it most of the way if not all the way to the hole.

"It came out, it landed, (and) I was like, okay, that looks pretty good. About two feet out, it was center cut."

Woods is seeking his sixth straight PGA TOUR victory and is fourth straight win on Doral's Blue Monster. He's the defending champion at the CA Championship and has won six of those World Golf Championships overall.

Ogilvy, who will play with Woods and Adam Scott in the 10:10 a.m. grouping on Saturday, pointed out that simply winning six tournaments is a good career -- much less, winning six tournaments in a row.

"The winning thing is pretty stunning," he admitted. "The being in contention all the time when he's playing bad is a testament to how well he grinds it out and how he never gives it up and how good his short game is. Jack (Nicklaus) spent most of his career in contention, and the great players have always kind of found their way to have some kind of chance.

"But the fact that he's winning as much as he does is pretty astonishing."

Woods has an uncanny ability to turn things around as he did last weekend when he found himself seven strokes off the lead at the midway point of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard, yet went on to win. And the momentum has definitely carried over.

"I think it was important for me to hit the ball better like I did on the weekend last week," Woods said. "I didn't hit the ball very good the first two days, turned that around, and then I've hit the ball well this week. You basically have to, with the wind blowing this hard. If you don't, the wind is going to take it pretty hard."

The game's No. 1 played stopped short of saying he was in the kind of zone everyone else thinks he must be in, though.

"I don't know, because every day changes," Woods explained. "Every day your feel changes. Each and every day you feel a little bit different and you have to make those slight adjustments to make sure you're able to hit the shots you want to hit."

And Woods certainly appears to be making all the right moves just now.