Tiger Woods makes big move on day two at WGC-Mexico Championship

MEXICO CITY – What a difference a day makes.

One day after he was lucky to escape his first-ever hole in Mexico with a double-bogey, Tiger Woods moved up the leaderboard with a second-round 66 at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship at Club de Golf Chapultepec.

“I had that one three-wiggle there at 17,” he said, “but overall it was a pretty good day. I felt like I got a lot out of the round and plotted my way around the golf course nicely and never really got out of position.”

Making his third start of the season after a couple of top-20 finishes at the Farmers Insurance Open and Genesis Open, Woods hit 11 of 14 fairways, hit 13 greens in regulation and took just 26 putts. He also made 108 feet of putts. Those numbers would have been even better had his last birdie try, from just over 11 feet, not taken a hard lip-out.

The performance moved him well up the leaderboard, from a tie for 25th place to tie for 7th when he signed his card.

“Just keep plodding along,” he said of his plans for the weekend. “I think that the winning score here really hasn’t been all that low.”

Woods was injured for the first edition of the WGC-Mexico Championship in 2017, and didn’t qualify to play last year, when he was just starting to play his way back into form. He captured his 80th PGA TOUR title at the TOUR Championship to culminate his comeback season.

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Even in a field that boasts 46 of the top 50 ranked players in the world, his presence has thrilled galleries here, who have been grateful and at times deliriously excited to see him in person for the first time. Even the first-tee announcer got into the act as his wild introduction of the main attraction Thursday was more boxing or soccer than golf, and cracked up Woods.

“Yeah, because he said my name three times,” Woods said with a smile.

It was right after his wild intro that he hooked a 5-wood out of bounds with his first swing.

There were no such problems Friday.

“The ball wasn’t flying as far today,” he said. “It wasn’t as warm, wasn’t as windy, so it was a little bit easier to do the calculations, and with my feels. Yesterday was tough; today was easier, and I hit a lot of shots pin-high today.”