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As Kingston Heath grew hot and dusty, Tiger’s game swung between hot and rusty. Tiger Woods prowled around the sandbelt course without extending himself in the heat on Friday, playing a conservative game to hold a three-shot lead after two rounds of the Australian Masters.
By his own admission, he “didn’t really do anything great”, but still he manages to be 10-under par after 36 holes.
He said there was a price to pay for being too aggressive at Kingston Heath, so only used five drivers off the tee and was regularly outdriven by playing partners Craig Parry and Rod Pampling.
When he needed to, however, he pulled out the requisite brilliance another massive crowd of 24,007 – including his mother Kultida – had come to see.
One exhibition of his greatness came after he dithered and changed his mind three times before deciding on a seven iron for his second shot at the par four second.
It was the right choice, landing within centimetres of the pin for an easy tap in for birdie to go eight-under.
But much of the brilliance was called in as disaster relief as he regularly salvaged par with genius few can match.
After two birdies to start his afternoon round in front of a bigger and more raucous crowd than Thursday’s well mannered morning gallery, Woods landed in the bunker at the par four fourth with his second shot.
Rather than the usual cheers and cries of “phwoar” whenever Woods swung his club, this one was met with silence, even from the shrill woman in the yellow floppy hat who shrieked “Tiger, we love you. Tiger, do you love us?” as he walked up the first fairway.
But the “phwoar” factor soon returned. His bunker shot stopped within a metre of the pin for another tap in to save par.
At the ninth, where he dropped his only shot on Thursday, he again sent his drive left into the long grass and followed that by landing in a valley on the far side of the green.
Again, he pitched up and holed a clutch three metre putt to stay in the black.
The world No.1 then pulled his drive at the 10th and followed up past the green, but another superb up and down saved par.
Four holes later, with a straightforward birdie at the par five 12th in between, he again saved par from the bunker with a four metre putt – his longest of the back nine.
“I made two big par putts at the ninth and 14th to keep the round going,” he said.
“To shoot 68 today, I thought that was a pretty good number considering the conditions.”
It wasn’t just the hardening course and brewing breeze which challenged him.
Twice, he had to pull out of shots as cameras went off in the gallery, which was again lined three and four deep along the fairways and 10 deep and into the trees around the greens.
Stewards had trouble keeping the crowds within the ropes as they scrambled to get a glimpse of the world’s greatest golfer – even if they saw more of the back of people’s heads than him play golf.
Snapshot of the second round of the $1.5 million Australian Masters at Kingston Heath on Friday:
MAN OF THE MOMENT – Tiger Woods. Obvious, but impossible to go past. The world’s best golfer produced a bogey-free. four-under-par 68 to stretch his lead to three shots. He could have pulled further ahead but narrowly missed several birdie putts in the closing holes.
KEY MOMENT – Woods’ par saves. While he could have had more birdies, he could easily have carded bogeys on the ninth and 14th holes, but produced his two best putts of the day to maintain a blemish-free round and give the chasing pack nothing.
SHOT OF THE DAY – Queensland’s Rob Pampling sank a monster putt on the par five 12th to salvage par, capping a great recovery after a wildly off-target tee shot flew through several trees and landed directly behind another, forcing him to take a penalty drop.
STAT OF THE DAY – Victorian qualifier Michael Choi dropped 14 shots in his final 12 holes on Friday, including a quadruple bogey and a triple bogey, to shoot 86 and finish 20 over par.
QUOTE OF THE DAY – “Am I surprised? No.” – a frank Woods on his taming of the Kingston Heath course.
SUMMARY – Two birdies in his first two holes sent Woods into the outright lead and from there it was just a matter of how far he would stretch it.