Tiger Woods tied for lead halfway through TOUR Championship

ATLANTA – They followed him with binoculars, clad in the Nike swoosh, under a merciless sun. They howled “T!” and “Tiger!” just in case he didn’t notice they were there.

They didn’t see the Tiger Woods who won the 2007 TOUR Championship and FedExCup, four back surgeries ago. He’s gone. But this one bears watching, too. Not at his best, Woods hit just seven of 14 fairways, made a double-bogey 6 from a fried-egg lie at the 16th hole, but still signed for a second-round 68 at the TOUR Championship at East Lake on Friday.

“I didn't hit it very well overall today,” said Woods, who goes into the weekend tied with Justin Rose (67) in search of his first victory since the 2013 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. “Didn't quite have the sharpness that I had yesterday, and it was pretty evident.

“At least for the most part,” he added, “I missed the ball in every spot that I needed to, so I always had a good angle in there. So, that helps. And my short game has been good.”

Rory McIlroy (68) is alone in third, 5-under and two back of the co-leaders.

Tiger roars went up around East Lake as he birdied the second, 12th, 14th, 15th and 18th holes, the last one coming after he reached the green in two for the second straight day.

Not that we should be surprised. Woods’ T6 at the BMW Championship was his sixth top-10 finish this season, and featured a final-round 65. He shot 65 again in the first round at East Lake. He’s 20th in the FedExCup. The only thing he hasn’t done is collect his 80th win, coming closest at the PGA Championship (solo second) and Valspar Championship (T2).

East Lake is playing hard—U.S. Open and PGA champion Brooks Koepka shot 78, and Bryson DeChambeau and Francesco Molinari each struggled to 75—but Woods has excelled around the fast greens, making over 100 feet of putts for the second straight day. He was admittedly worn out by the grind during his 68 Friday, and hopes not to press his luck.

“I'm rolling the ball well,” he said, “but, more importantly, I need to leave the ball in the correct spots. Above the holes is not easy this week, and so it's imperative I hit the ball in the fairway so I can control my spin coming into the greens. Yesterday I had a bunch of uphill putts, and hence I shot 5-under.”

Tommy Fleetwood, who played with Woods in that round, is a believer. “Tiger Woods is good at golf,” Fleetwood tweeted, and after shooting his second straight 69 on Friday, he laughed as he called it “my most successful tweet of all time.”

“I didn’t think much of it,” he said. “I just put it out there. It kind of went viral, that one.”

As for playing with Woods, the young Englishman said he enjoyed talking golf with “the greatest golfer of all-time.”

“There’s very few sports where you could play against your childhood hero, and I’ve played with both of them in Ernie (Els) and Tiger,” Fleetwood said. “The way he drove it impressed me.” (Woods hit 10/14 fairways Thursday.) “Everyone always talks about that being the fragility of his game, but his start lines and the shape of his shots were on a string.”

We’ve now seen Woods excel when he was at his best, Thursday, and when he wasn’t, Friday. We didn’t see him at all at East Lake for the last five years; his last start here was 2013.

And now he has a share of the lead. He had a share after a first-round 62 at the recent BMW Championship, but quickly fell back. He fought back from a deficit to briefly take the final-round lead at The Open Championship at Carnoustie, but finished poorly as playing partner Molinari won. Now it’s Woods and Rose, with five others within three of their lead.

What would it mean to get win No. 80 after all the pain, rehab, and close calls?

“I've got 36 more holes to go,” Woods said, “and hopefully I'll be answering that question come Sunday night.”