Woods on the prowl as five Major winners lead at the Masters

It hasn’t been the best of weeks for the Irish at Augusta but arguably one of the highlights of the week has been the form and confidence shown by Tiger Woods!

Woods was on the prowl in round two and there were definitely signs of the swagger returning, with glimpses of the Tiger of old.  Unlike old Tiger though, this one didn’t make his gains on the par 5’s and in fact was level par for the par 5’s on day two.

“I feel like I played my own way back into the tournament.  I was just very patient today, felt very good to be out there doing what I was doing.  This is now three straight majors that I’ve been in the mix and so it’s good stuff,” he said.

Tiger brings a different element to any tournament and the roars were noticeably louder as they echoed through the pines and reverberated around Augusta as the great man made his move.

“I missed a few putts out there but I’m not too bummed out about it because I hit them on my lines.  So I can live with that.  I can live with days when I’m hitting putts on my line and they just don’t go in, that’s the way it goes.

“But I also made some distance putts there at 9, 14, 15, they were nice to make and if I keep hitting the putts on my line, they will start dropping.”

Even a rogue slide tackle from a marshall in the trees on the 14^thcouldn’t disrupt his rhythm and Woods went on to birdie 14 and 15 before three closing pars brought him in at 6-under par and just one shot off the lead.

“It’s all good.  Accidents happen.  I’ve had galleries run over me, it’s just, you know, when you play in front of a lot of people, things happen.”

At the top of proceedings there’s a five-way tie for the halfway lead, the most in Masters history with one of those, Francesco Molinari, recording his lowest 18-hole score in his 26 rounds at Augusta, a 67.

For the stats lovers, the second-round leader (or co-leader) has gone on to win 32 times in the previous 82 Masters Tournaments, while four of the last five winners have held at least a share of the 36-hole lead so one of the five Major winners could be extending their Major title haul come Sunday night.

We will watch with interest!