Tiger the talk of the town after second round 65

He was on fire early, getting a brief share of the lead as he jumped to 4-under through eight holes but two double bogeys in his last three holes sent his solid comeback round into meltdown.

“Just made some really silly mistakes, mistakes I don’t normally make”, Woods said. When he hit it well, it was really, really good, and when you mis-hit it, it was kind of, you know, they weren’t very good misses. “Got it going sideways”.

An eight-shot improvement from his opening 73 lifted Woods into a tie for ninth at six under, six shots back of co-leaders American Dustin Johnson (66) and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama (67).

Tiger Woods watches his tee shot on the first hole during the second round at the Hero World Challenge golf tournament, Friday, Dec. 2, 2016, in Nassau, Bahamas.

“I had it going, today was different (than yesterday), I turned those two par-fives (nine and 11) into under par today, and that’s four shots right there and I kept the momentum going and moved myself up the board”.

PGA chairman Peter O’Malley says Australia would roll out the red carpet for Tiger Woods should the returning superstar want to add another southern summer swing to his 2017 schedule. “Some bushes and some rocks and it can go sideways”.

One would think the PGA Tour would recognize that people want to see Woods play, and that broadcasting a tournament with 18 players – 17 now after Justin Rose withdrew – in which Tiger is the first off the tee and is playing quite well should probably be broadcast in its entirety.

Stone, who was struggling with a back injury during his second round, he said: “He (Schwartzel) seems to like this place so hopefully we get drawn together tomorrow and hopefully we can have a good weekend of competition against each other”. “By the time I hit my second tee shot, I found the flow of the round”.

Now playing only his second competitive round in nearly 16 months, many feel he looks to be back.

He almost aced the par-3 12th and he had converted four birdies in the previous five holes before stepping up the the tee at troublesome 16. Revealing a bald spot on the back of his head when removing his cap to wipe sweat, Woods appeared fit and swung with comfort and ease.

Tiger Woods saved par from the dunes with a shot so good that two spectators ran over and scooped up sand for a souvenir. I just made a couple mistakes out there on the par 5s.

But he flubbed the chip on No. 9 (bogey), had a simple pitch on the 16th that rolled out 30 feet, and his pitch from right of the 18th green hit the pin halfway up, indicating it was too strong.

What followed on No. 16 was even more remarkable and maybe the biggest harbinger of what is to come for Woods.

“It could have been something really good”, Woods said.

“I wanted to keep that card clean”, Woods said. “I’m looking forward to another three more days”. “But with the wind down I figured I could just go out there and just play it solo”.