PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — If you measure Tiger Woods’ chances of winning a golf tournament by the level of his confidence and comfort, there is a good chance he will win the second Players Championship title of his career by day’s end tomorrow.
Woods seems to have it all going right now, and that cannot leave the rest of the field feeling very comfortable entering the weekend at the TPC-Sawgrass.
“I feel like I’m driving it well, hitting it well with my irons, my distance control is good, short game is really solid and I’m making my share of putts,’’ Woods said.
Any issues with his game?
“I’m pleased with every facet of it,’’ Woods said after shooting his second consecutive 67 to stand at 10-under, one shot behind leader Sergio Garcia.
Woods’ 10-under score is his best 36-hole score by six shots in the 15 times he has played the tournament. When he won in 2001, he was 3-under at the halfway point.
Rory McIlroy, who fought his game all day in a round of 72, is lurking at 6-under. First-round leader Roberto Castro, who tied the course record with a 63 on Thursday, shot 78 to fall to 3-under.
The theme of the day and the week has been how well Woods has played on a course that has been his nemesis. Since his win here in 2001, he has only one top-10 finish.
“Even though I haven’t played well in the past, I’ve still won here,’’ Woods said. “I know how to get around this golf course.’’
Woods insisted the “key’’ to playing well on this course is to come into the tournament in good form, which he has done.
“I played really well through a stretch there in 2000-2001, I did pretty well through there, and came here playing well,’’ he said.
Woods then flashed a rare spot of public humor, mimicking that iconic call by NBC announcer Gary Koch of the long twisting birdie putt Woods made on No. 17 en route to his ’01 win, saying, “You just have to come here playing well, and I just thought what I’ve done so far this year has been pretty good — better than most.’’
Woods has won three times already this year with three major championships still to play. For historical purposes, the last time Woods won three tournaments before The Players Championship was in 2007, and he went on to win seven events that year.
So it will be Woods and Garcia, who won The Players in 2008, playing together in today’s third-round final pairing, which should make for some fun theater. When paired together, Woods is 12-3-4 against Garcia. In weekend rounds, though, Woods is 6-0 against Garcia.
Asked if it will be an opportunity for him to “measure’’ himself against Woods, Garcia, who in the awards ceremony when he won in 2008 thanked Woods (injured at the time) for not playing, wanted no part of that.
“Well, we’ll see,’’ he said. “But, no, no, I don’t have to measure myself against anybody. I know what I want to try to do, and any given day I can shoot a round like this and any other day [Woods] can shoot a good round and beat me.’’
Garcia, who has 13 birdies in 36 holes, said he’ll feed off the feelings he had when he won.
“Fortunately for me, I’ve managed to play quite decent on this golf course,’’ he said. “So any good things that can you get in your head, it’s obviously positive and those kind of things always help. So we’ll see if we can manage to do something similar.’’