Sports

Tiger maintains striking distance at Cadillac Championship

DORAL, Fla. — Several times on Friday it looked as if Tiger Woods were playing himself out of contention at the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Trump National Doral, but he persevered and enters Saturday’s third round a mere six shots off the lead at 5-over par.

“Basically, you’ve just got to hang around,’’ said Woods, who hit three shots in the water in his second round and still managed to shoot 1-over-par 73. “You just never know. We’ve all got a shot at it now. No one is going anywhere.’’

Woods called it “a tough golf course,’’ adding, “I don’t think that we expected the golf course to be that hard that fast, but it kept getting quicker and quicker. Some of these pin locations were just … with the wind directions, it was just impossible to get the ball close.’’

Woods joked he “contributed’’ to the 113 balls hit in the water during the second round, saying, “One of them was perfect shot right down 8, right down the middle of the fairway with a 3 ‑wood, [that] just ran out too far.’’

Woods said his back, which caused him to withdraw from the Honda Classic final round Sunday, was “a little bit sore.’’

“Long day,’’ he said. “It will be nice to get some treatment and be ready for [Saturday].’’

Asked which hole was most challenging to him, Woods said: “One through 18 right now. I don’t know about the other players, but I found all of them pretty hard out there today.’’


Phil Mickelson had a nightmarish front nine in his second round, carding three double bogeys in a row, on Nos. 2, 3 and 4, but he rallied to shoot 75 after his round looked like it was going sideways. Those three doubles left him at 8-over par with 14 holes still to play.

Following his double on No. 2, Mickelson showed an uncharacteristic public display of frustration after his second consecutive double, on No. 3, where his approach shot hit the green and trickled into the water.

After his putt for double went in, Mickelson derisively tossed his ball into the water. Then, when he arrived to the fourth tee, where there was a backup of groups, he lay down on the grass with his hat over his eyes.

Minutes later, when he teed off on No. 4, a 206-yard par-3, Mickelson hit his shot into the water, leading to his third double in a row.


No one in the tournament had a worse start than Australia’s Brett Rumford, who took an 11 on his opening hole Thursday, which was the par-5 No. 10. He hit three tee shots into the lake to the left of the fairway, leading to his horrible start, which led to his 11-over-par 83. The 11 on the 10th hole was a tournament record high, surpassing the 10 Mark Calcavecchia carded in 1996.

In his second round, Rumford again hit his first tee shot into the water and ended up with a double-bogey 7, making him 8-over par on that hole alone in the first two rounds.


Sergio Garcia nearly duplicated Rumford’s start when he opened his second round on No. 10, where he put two drives into the water and took a 9. Earlier during the completion of his first round, Garcia made a mess of No. 16, a par-4, taking a triple-bogey 7 after hitting a shot off a tent and into the water.