Weekend of hope for Tiger
PARAMUS, N.J. — Tiger Woods is four shots behind going into the weekend at The Barclays, which can be interpreted two ways.
He started the second round tied for the lead, was alone at top when he made the turn at Ridgewood and then made four bogeys over his last eight holes — including a missed putt from 20 inches — to shoot 39 on the back and fall four shots behind.
Considering the way his year has gone, four shots behind Jason Day doesn't seem like that much.
Woods hasn't been this close to the lead going into the final two days since he returned from his five-month hiatus at the Masters. He was two shots behind at Augusta National and wound up in a tie for fourth.
Since then?
He was 10 shots behind at the Memorial and AT&T National, nine shots behind at The Players Championship at least five shots behind at the other three majors. And who could forget Firestone, when he was 13 shots back going into a weekend that only got worse.
Woods, then, was hardly worried — and it had little to do with his score.
In a year of oddities, here's another doozie — he was ranked No. 1 at Ridgewood in driving accuracy. Woods has missed only two fairways the first two days, although he has hit only two drivers, including none on Friday when he shot 73. He also his tied for seventh in greens in regulation, a category he once ruled.
Putting? Comes and goes, as always.
More difficult than the four shots were the dozen players between him and Day, a 22-year-old Australian who won his first PGA Tour event earlier this year in Dallas.
And so, the weekend shapes up as anyone's game.
Day ran off three straight birdies late in his round and was the last of nine players who had a share of the lead. A hard-fought par on the ninth hole, when he drove into the right rough and had to make a 6-foot par, gave him a second straight 67.
He was at 8-under 134.
Kevin Streelman loves Ridgewood for all the right reasons, not the least of which being that his grandparents are buried in a cemetery across the street from the seventh hole. His roots are here. His parents still live nearby. And two years ago, Streelman narrowly missed a playoff at The Barclays.
So imagine the show he put on Friday morning, when soft conditions made scoring easy but all put mud on so many balls in the fairway. Right as he was making the turn, Streelman had six birdies in a seven-hole stretch and shot 63.
"It's like a special home for me, a special place," he said.
He was at 7-under 135, along with Vaughn Taylor, who shot a 70.
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