On moving day at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Tiger Woods came back from as far as six shots down to take a two shot lead heading into the final day at Bay Hill.
Woods, the tourney’s defending champion, blazed the firm greens on Saturday after kicking in three straight bogeys on holes 16 through 18 to end his second round, leaving him four shots off pace.
His putter led him down a different path this time, giving him five birdies and one eagle. That eagle came on the 16th green, a putt that allowed him to rush by 36 hole leader Justin Rose.
His lead at the API (Arnold Palmer Invitational) sets him up to win for the eighth time on Palmer’s course, and to retake the world No. 1 ranking, a position he hasn’t held in over two years.
For the tournament, Woods has a total score of 11- under 205.
The men that Tiger had to catch, Justin Rose and Bill Haas, either heard Tiger’s growl on the front nine or were scared away by the intimidating clouds that tried to hang around the tourney.
While Rose, tied for second after shooting 39 on the back nine, is still in contention, he’ll have to have a serious talk with his putter tonight. Rose bogeyed four times on the back nine, watching his balls zip by the cup instead of dropping in. If Rose would have parred the four holes that he bogeyed, he would currently sit at 11-under par with Woods.
But he didn’t, and he now faces an uphill climb to chase Woods, Ricky Fowler and John Huh, two golfers that share the second spot with Rose.
Haas struggled mightily on Saturday. For the first two rounds of the API, Haas positioned himself to earn his sixth win on the PGA Tour. Like Rose, Haas’ putter let him down. He double bogeyed the par four fifth and par four 10th to finish at one over 72 for the day.
Haas isn’t far off the lead, tied for fifth at eight-under, but he’ll have a lot of ground to make-up on Sunday afternoon.
Sunday’s pairing schedule should be fun to watch as Woods will golf with the charismatically dressed Ricky Fowler who posted an impressive score of five-under for the day.
In the end, many will watch with curious eyes on Sunday to see if Woods can still hold off his opponents with his irons, steal stare and red polo. During his victory at the 2009 API, Woods chased down Sean O’Hair from five shots back to win for the sixth time.
Tiger is also 51 for 55 when leading or tied after 54 holes. Can he regain his magic of old, or will Fowler and the rest of the field tame the surging Tiger?
Note: The last time Woods won back-to-back at the Arnold Palmer Invitational was 2008 and 2009. This may also be the first time since 2008 that Woods has won three tournaments before heading into the Masters, which was the last time he won a green jacket.
