Woods earns his second zero bogey of the season, Boston once again explodes in the audience
On Saturday afternoon, September 2nd, Beijing time, quite late, Woods had a 25 foot bird push on the 14th hole green in TPC Boston. Before Woods was about to hit the ball, a loud cheer penetrated the air. That was Bronson Burgoon shooting the Hawk directly into the hole from 139 yards away on hole 17.
At that moment, every spectator on the field was boiling. It can be certain that thousands of drunken fans with a certain Boston bias created such a grand atmosphere, and after their outburst, they returned to calm on hole 14.
Woods responded to Bogo's eagle by pushing in the 25 foot putter, which reached 4 below par in this round, and the sound became louder again.
The last four holes were all spent in a blur of noise, during which Woods added another bird to hole 17.
At the end of the day, Woods signed his best scorecard since the last round of the US PGA Championship. He hit 66 in the second round of the Dell Technology Championship, 5 below par, which is his second zero bogey in the past four rounds.
The US Tour will not return here until 2020, and Woods knows that the stage has been set up for a special afternoon. "Even before we started playing, they were already immersed," Woods said. "When we warmed up on the practice field, you could already hear cheers everywhere on the field."
At that moment, Woods was 11 strokes behind and close to the elimination line, but five hours later, his two round result was 4 strokes below par, tied for 21st place. He had the opportunity to return to the championship race, but staying within the rope made his life much easier.
On Saturday, Woods became a lane machine again, playing 12 out of 14 lanes. The missed fairways include the fourth hole, which allows for a one shot green, and the fourth hole. There, he hit the left position in front of the green. And another mistake is the first wooden block in hole 13. He didn't deviate too much and eventually hit a slap. Woods has used the number one wood 7 times, the fairway wood 5 times, and the iron tee 2 times on the serving table all over the world.
His newly found control eliminated the expensive Baiji. This week, his shooting accuracy tied for third place. When Woods is able to hit the fairway at such a ratio, he usually hits 60 low shots.
"It's already going smoothly," Woods said of his swing, "I can better put the ball in a playable position. I think this is a big difference. In the past two games, I have started much better and given me better opportunities."
Woods did not seize those opportunities in New Jersey because he failed to put a hole. But this week, he used the Teleme Juno Flying Goose Putter, and the push looked great. He ranked 14th in putt score (3.029 strokes) and made two birdie putts.
"I'm really rolling on my own route," Woods said. "A few didn't make it into the hole, but it was an overall good and solid day."
At the beginning of the day, Woods was in the foam of the tour championship. He hit 72 strokes on Friday, one stroke higher than the par, and is expected to fall out of the top 30 points. But now, his estimated point ranking is 27th, and if he plays steadily over the weekend, he can comfortably go to Philadelphia to compete in the BMW Championship.
From a broader perspective, this is not the time for Woods to hit a bad goal and face elimination. Woods may play 5 games in 6 weeks, including the Ryder Cup. For this reason, he sometimes cannot find a good balance between training and giving his body a break.
But Woods was not eliminated, and he didn't have enough time like Saturday to advance towards the championship. He really hopes to return to that point as many times as possible and figure out how to fight.
Nevertheless, this is much better than a year ago. A year ago at this time, Tiger Woods had just received permission from a doctor to play golf. That was a significant moment for Woods returning from his fourth lumbar surgery.
At that time, he posted a video - the video description read: "The doctor allowed me to start cutting the ball." - showing that he was no longer afraid of a full swing.
Woods recalled that when he first started swinging, he was "very nervous because I didn't want to mess things up. That's it. So if I didn't use fusion, I really had no other choice."
Woods took a cautious approach. After obtaining permission to extend the iron pole, his first shot of the No. 4 iron only flew 90 yards. "I was very careful when I first started," he said.
He admitted that that feeling had not completely disappeared, even though he had made progress faster than he had anticipated. "I don't want to get hurt again," he said. "I don't want to have that kind of pain anymore. Throughout the year, I've played different types of golf several times because I don't want to feel any more pain in my heart."
But now, what Woods really wants to feel is holding a trophy with both hands for the first time in five years. He was 7 strokes behind in the third round on Sunday. Weber Simpson took the lead, with 20 players ahead of him on the leaderboard.
"I still have some work to do," Woods said. "You can't stay still on this golf course. You have to keep catching birds. You have to keep searching. In the remaining time, the competition conditions will continue like this, and you will see many birds."
This is a daunting task, but it is not impossible. Considering that a year ago, he could only cut a pole in the backyard, he would definitely be happy to accept such a challenge.