Tiger Woods grinded his way to an even-par 72 in the second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and heads into the weekend on four-under-par, seven back of co-leaders Henrik Stenson and Bryson DeChambeau.
After a shaky outward nine, Woods came alive on the inward stretch with birdies on the two par-fives, 12 and 16. He made a massive par-save at the 15th from a plugged bunker lie near the lip, nailing a putt from more than 20 feet to send the huge gallery at Bay Hill crazy.
“Today was a hard fight. It was a grind. It wasn’t sharp but I hung in there and just kept grinding away and chipped away at the golf course,” said Woods.
“I didn’t hit the ball close, I didn’t hit the ball well, but I was just hanging in there and just trying not to shoot myself out of the tournament, just keep myself in the tournament. I thought something in the red would be great and I just wasn’t quite able to do it, but came close,” he added.
Woods won has won the tournament eight times including four in a row from 2000 to 2003. The last win came in 2013 when he edged Justin Rose by two shots for his 77th PGA Tour title, Woods’ current haul of 79 is just three short of Sam Snead’s record of 82 PGA Tour wins.
