When you absolutely, positively need to have him near the top of the leaderboard, Tiger Woods always delivers.
The third stop in the new FedEx Cup series, the BMW Championship, has a nice of collection of strong young players in the hunt going into the weekend: Aaron Baddeley, Justin Rose, Jonathan Byrd and Camilio Villegas. Former Illinois golfer Steve Stricker remains a terrific feel-good story.
No offense, but none of those players will get the people meter moving in Chicago.
Woods does.
Woods shot his second straight 67 during the second round Friday at Cog Hill. At 8 under, Woods, Stricker (66 Friday), Rose (69) and Villegas (69) are one shot behind Baddeley (65) and Byrd (69).
With the BMW tournament struggling to get noticed during a busy sports weekend, it was imperative for Woods to come up big — especially with Phil Mickelson getting his kids ready for school in San Diego.
Now it figures to be an exciting last two rounds with Woods shooting for his fourth title at Cog Hill.
“I’ve always loved coming [to Chicago] and trying to take some money from a good friend of mine who used to play basketball,” Woods said.
Woods faced much tougher competition Friday than Michael Jordan.
On a day when a two-hour rain delay turned Cog Hill’s greens into target practice, Woods almost got left behind as he fought with his putter early.
It took an unlikely birdie to get Woods going on the par-5 ninth.
He hit his drive way right and caught a tree on his second shot, sending it left. Then Woods, with a corkscrew, wild-looking finish, hooked an 8-iron around a tree to 15 feet. He then made the putt.
When asked if he ever practices that shot, Woods said, “Quite a bit, actually. Unfortunately, I have never really driven it [consistently in the fairway], so I’ve kind of had to practice shots like that.”
Woods also practices low-flying wedge shots to cheat the wind. He again showed another part of his exceptional arsenal with the winds blowing as high as 25 m.p.h.
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Woods refers to it as controlling “your traj,” as in trajectory.
“If you get it above the trees with wind like this, it’s going to get slammed pretty hard,” Woods said.
Stricker had some problems with the wind on the par-4 fourth. He chose the wrong line and the wind took it over to the left rough. Stricker then caught a small branch with his second shot, leading to a double-bogey 6.
Thanks to his recent strong play, Stricker didn’t let the bad hole get him down.
“What has been better about my game lately is I kind of let that stuff roll off my back,” Stricker said.
“I feel like I’m hitting it well enough to make some birdies on the way in.”
Stricker made a bunch of them as he continues his hot play in the FedEx Cup series. He is second in points behind Mickelson.
Woods was thrilled to see it up close after playing with Stricker the first two days.
“It’s great to see him playing well again,” Woods said. “He went through a stretch in his career where he really did struggle pretty hard. For him to turn it around the last two years … if anyone deserves it, it’s ‘Stricks.'”
The 41-year old veteran Stricker now will mix it up with the 26-year old Baddeley, the 29-year old Byrd, the 25-year-old Villegas and the 26-year old Rose, among others.
After playing two days on a soft Cog Hill track, they all know the formula for success this weekend.
“You’ve got to stay aggressive out there,” Byrd said. “You really can’t just hit it in the fat of the greens. You have to keep trying to hit it close.”
Nobody does it better than the 31-year old Woods, who will try to gather his 60th PGA Tour victory Sunday.
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