Wedding swinger Tiger is back in the groove

LESS than a week before he weds Elin Nordegren in the Sandy Lane hotel in Barbados, it was like the old Tiger Woods at Mount Juliet yesterday.

Even if he could do no better than a round of 70, two shots more than Thursday’s opening round, Tiger was a lot happier in himself. Thursday had been a really difficult exercise as he was seriously handicapped by a nagging back injury that caused him to grimace and wince in pain after hitting most of his shots.

“This was a lot better,” he beamed.

At six under overall, Woods is five off the pace set by Ernie Els, but not at all dismissing the possibility that he can bridge the gap over the weekend and capture his first title since the Accenture World Match Play Championship last February.

Woods admitted: “At least I could make some sort of a turn. I was just hoping they could get me ready so I could make some decent turns. Some of the shots coming out of the rough were tough but I guess you get accustomed to the pain. My putting wasn’t as good this time, I had two three-putts and missed two short ones, so that accounted for four shots. I could easily be 10 under par.”

Mind you, we’ve heard much of the same from Tiger over the past year or so when he promised time and time again that he was “close” and yet all too frequently failed to live up to that boast.

It has all left him without a strokeplay victory since this tournament at Crabapple, Atlanta, 12 months ago. If he is to capture the title for a fourth time, he believes he needs to get back to the standard of putting that saved his bacon during the trauma of the first round as he explained how he “three whipped” the 10th for par and the 12th for one of two bogeys, the other coming at the difficult and dangerous 18th.

“Missing that short one on 18 hurt, it was just inside left and I blocked it,” he said.

“It was just a frustrating back nine. As for the weather, you don’t mind if it stays raining all day but we were putting the rain gear on and taking it off all the time. Having the squalls come as they did was frustrating.

“I wish it was 90 degrees but it’s not going to be like that when you come to Ireland. Unfortunately, it’s a little bit cooler, which makes it difficult to warm up. Once the back gets warm, it stays warm.

“I’ve just got to take it day by day. The spasms came today but went away again, unlike the first round. It’s very hard to find a comfortable place to sleep but I still should have shot 66 today.”

Tiger will have other things on his mind from Monday onward. While he continues to stonewall on the subject, it is now a racing certainty that he and Elin will tie the knot some time next week and all will wish them well.

Today’s tee-off times for third round:

(Gbr unless stated):

0846 Shingo Katayama (Jpn), Scott Verplank (USA)

0855 Zhang Lian-wei (Chn), Michael Campbell (Nzl)

0904 Yong-eun Yang (Kor), Fredrik Jacobson (Swe)

0913 Chad Campbell (USA), Arjun Atwal (Ind)

0922 Stephen Leaney (Aus), Tim Herron (USA)

0931 SK Ho (Kor), KJ Choi (Kor)

0940 Charles Howell (USA), Darren Fichardt (Rsa)

0949 Andre Stolz (Aus), Thongchai Jaidee (Thai)

0958 Andrew McLardy (Rsa), Mark Hensby (Aus)

1007 Paul McGinley, Irl Chris Riley (USA)

1016 Stephen Ames (Tri), Chris DiMarco (USA)

1025 Alex Cejka (Ger), David Toms (USA)

1034 Stewart Cink (USA), Thomas Levet (Fra)

1043 Peter Senior (Aus), Jonathan Kaye (USA)

1052 Darren Clarke, Irl Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra)

1101 Jay Haas (USA), Graeme McDowell, Irl

1110 Davis Love (USA), Robert Allenby (Aus)

1120 Jerry Kelly (USA), Desvonde Botes (Rsa)

1130 Joakim Haeggman (Swe), Trevor Immelman (Rsa)

1140 Richard Green (Aus), Paul Casey

1150 Stuart Appleby (Aus), Adam Scott (Aus)

1200 Nick O’Hern (Aus), Barry Lane

1210 Carlos Franco (Par), Rory Sabbatini (Rsa)

1220 Bob Tway (USA), Scott Drummond

1230 Jim Furyk (USA), Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn)

1240 Fred Couples (USA), Sergio Garcia (Spa)

1250 Zach Johnson (USA), Peter Lonard (Aus)

1300 Luke Donald, Tiger Woods (USA)

1310 David Howell, Angel Cabrera (Arg)

1320 Padraig Harrington, Irl, Brad Faxon (USA)

1330 Steve Flesch (USA), Thomas Bjorn (Den)

1340 Retief Goosen (Rsa), Lee Westwood

1350 Justin Leonard (USA), Todd Hamilton (USA)

1400 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Ernie Els (Rsa).