Doubt him no more: Tiger Woods is going to win again

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ATLANTA – They followed him with binoculars, clad in the Nike swoosh, under a merciless sun. They howled “T!â€� and “Tiger!â€� just in case he didn’t notice they were there. They didn’t see the Tiger Woods who won the 2007 TOUR Championship and FedExCup, four back surgeries ago. He’s gone. But this one bears watching, too. Not at his best, Woods hit just seven of 14 fairways, made a double-bogey 6 from a fried-egg lie at the 16th hole, but still signed for a second-round 68 at the TOUR Championship at East Lake on Friday. “I didn’t hit it very well overall today,â€� said Woods, who goes into the weekend tied with Justin Rose (67) in search of his first victory since the 2013 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. “Didn’t quite have the sharpness that I had yesterday, and it was pretty evident. “At least for the most part,â€� he added, “I missed the ball in every spot that I needed to, so I always had a good angle in there. So, that helps. And my short game has been good.â€� Rory McIlroy (68) is alone in third, 5-under and two back of the co-leaders. Tiger roars went up around East Lake as he birdied the second, 12th, 14th, 15th and 18th holes, the last one coming after he reached the green in two for the second straight day. Not that we should be surprised. Woods’ T6 at the BMW Championship was his sixth top-10 finish this season, and featured a final-round 65. He shot 65 again in the first round at East Lake. He’s 20th in the FedExCup. The only thing he hasn’t done is collect his 80th win, coming closest at the PGA Championship (solo second) and Valspar Championship (T2). East Lake is playing hard—U.S. Open and PGA champion Brooks Koepka shot 78, and Bryson DeChambeau and Francesco Molinari each struggled to 75—but Woods has excelled around the fast greens, making over 100 feet of putts for the second straight day. He was admittedly worn out by the grind during his 68 Friday, and hopes not to press his luck. “I’m rolling the ball well,â€� he said, “but, more importantly, I need to leave the ball in the correct spots. Above the holes is not easy this week, and so it’s imperative I hit the ball in the fairway so I can control my spin coming into the greens. Yesterday I had a bunch of uphill putts, and hence I shot 5-under.â€� Tommy Fleetwood, who played with Woods in that round, is a believer. “Tiger Woods is good at golf,â€� Fleetwood tweeted, and after shooting his second straight 69 on Friday, he laughed as he called it “my most successful tweet of all time.â€� “I didn’t think much of it,â€� he said. “I just put it out there. It kind of went viral, that one.â€� As for playing with Woods, the young Englishman said he enjoyed talking golf with “the greatest golfer of all-time.â€� “There’s very few sports where you could play against your childhood hero, and I’ve played with both of them in Ernie (Els) and Tiger,â€� Fleetwood said. “The way he drove it impressed me.â€� (Woods hit 10/14 fairways Thursday.) “Everyone always talks about that being the fragility of his game, but his start lines and the shape of his shots were on a string.â€� We’ve now seen Woods excel when he was at his best, Thursday, and when he wasn’t, Friday. We didn’t see him at all at East Lake for the last five years; his last start here was 2013. And now he has a share of the lead. He had a share after a first-round 62 at the recent BMW Championship, but quickly fell back. He fought back from a deficit to briefly take the final-round lead at The Open Championship at Carnoustie, but finished poorly as playing partner Molinari won. Now it’s Woods and Rose, with five others within three of their lead. What would it mean to get win No. 80 after all the pain, rehab, and close calls? “I’ve got 36 more holes to go,â€� Woods said, “and hopefully I’ll be answering that question come Sunday night.â€�

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BETHESDA, Md. – Francesco Molinari remembered the pain of missing last year’s TOUR Championship by a shot when the best he could muster at the BMW Championship was a T12 finish. It ultimately left him 37th in the FedExCup – a decent season for sure – but not the standard the Italian wanted. As one of a handful of players who splits his time playing both the PGA TOUR and the European Tour, Molinari vowed to himself he’d do better this year. He’d make it to Atlanta. But while a win at the BMW PGA Championship and a runner up a week later in his native Italian Open set him up nicely in the European Tour’s Race to Dubai, Molinari found himself languishing in 123rd place in the FedExCup at the beginning of this week. In his 12 starts on the PGA TOUR his best result was a T16 at the Wells Fargo Championship. So when faced with a choice of the lucrative Rolex Series French Open – which could further his cause making a third Ryder Cup team – or the Quicken Loans National this week Molinari remembered his FedExCup Playoff pain from last season and chose to fly to Washington D.C. It proved a masterstroke. Rounds of 67-65-65 set the 35-year-old up with a share of the 54-hole lead at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. Then he put the hammer down on Sunday with a blistering 8-under 62. Having opened up a three-shot lead at the turn Molinari went eagle, birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie to open the back nine and obliterate the field. He won by eight shots. “I came here obviously because I was right on the bubble in the FedExCup and I wanted to gain a better position, so I guess job done,â€� he smiled as he moved to 42nd on the list. “It was (a big risk), but the risk on the other side was I was 123rd on the FedExCup. When you play two tours, you need to balance the two things. “It wasn’t an easy decision, I thought until the last minute whether to go to France or to come here but seems like it was the right choice in the end.â€� While Molinari has five European Tour wins, it was his first PGA TOUR triumph. Of course one of his wins is the World Golf Championships – HSBC Champions but it came in 2010 before the event was granted PGA TOUR status. The technicality irked the Italian a little but becoming the first player from his native land to win on U.S. soil since Toney Penna in 1945 was certainly some decent solace. “When everyone was saying I never won on the PGA TOUR, I felt like saying, well, technically, it was pretty much a PGA TOUR tournament. But it’s just a formality, and I think it’s different anyway to win on U.S. soil,â€� Molinari said. “That was obviously in China and it’s more international. It’s just a different kind of event. So this win feels special. “It’s amazing to win a tournament hosted by Tiger. He is probably the greatest ever to play the game and I grew up as a teenager watching him on TV dominating golf tournaments. “It’s even more special to win in this style and to get his congratulations on the last green was a very proud moment for me.â€� Molinari will stay in the USA and play in a few weeks at the John Deere Classic before heading back to Scotland for The Open Championship at Carnoustie.

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