Though Tiger Woods had an unfortunate start to his opening round at the WGC-Mexico, the Big Cat bounced back in a big way in Round 2, carding six birdies and a lone bogey en route to a round of five-under-par 66.
That was enough to launch Woods 17 spots up the leaderboard into T8 — six shots back of Dustin Johnson’s lead at the tournament’s halfway point.
Though the surge up the leaderboard was certainly a welcome development, it was Woods’s final approach that arguably became the highlight of the tournament thus far.
On Club de Golf Chapultepec’s 367-yard par-4 9th hole (Woods’s final hole of the second round), Woods hit his drive into the right fairway bunker. Though he only had 135 yards left to the green, his angle to the hole was blocked by a tree. So Woods elected to do what he does best: manufacture the appropriate shot.
Unbelievable.
What a swing.
What a shot.Wow, @TigerWoods. ? #LiveUnderPar pic.twitter.com/cO134n7oEm
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 22, 2019
With his stance wide open, Woods took a mighty swing, hitting a perfectly shaped cut-bordering-on-banana-slice. The ball landed on the left side of the green and actually spun all the way back toward the hole, finally settling just under 12 feet from the hole.
“The ball was sitting down just enough where I didn’t think I could clear that tree,” Woods said after his round. “So I went back to try to cut it with an 8-iron and then I realized that’s going to come out too hot, it’s going to miss the slope. I ended up going back to the 9-iron and I realized, jeez, I’ve really got to slice this thing. So I opened up and gave it as much of a cut motion as I possibly could and it worked out.”
Woods unfortunately missed the ensuing birdie putt, but the shot was vintage TW, and the video clip has been viewed nearly a million times since Friday evening.
