Tiger Struggles, Falls a Shot Back

Tiger would probably be the first to admit that Friday wasn't Tiger Woods' A game. In fact, it might not even have been his B or C game, but Tiger does what Tiger does, and a second round 72 has the top golfer in the world one shot back of the leaders and still very much in the hunt at Quail Hollow.

Bubba Watson and Retief Goosen are both leading at 8-under. The lengthy left-hander Goosen matched Tiger's 30 on the front nine from a day ago, and Retief wound up carding his second straight 68. Watson's 65 on Friday included eight birdies, three bogeys and an eagle. Goosen, meanwhile, has made at least five birdies in each of his first two rounds.

---

---

Tiger was quoted after the Masters as saying he was "a fraction off" at Augusta, and it looked like more of the same on Friday at Quail Hollow. Woods is currently 135th out of 151 players this week in driving accuracy, and was relegated to hitting fairway woods off the tee towards the end of the round just to try and find the short grass.

Failed birdies on the short par-4 14th and the par-5 15th had Woods in a sour mood, but, even worse, sloppy bogeys on 16 and 18 have Tiger looking up at the leaderboard for the first time all week. When looking at Tiger's play, it's hard to imagine him being more topsy-turvy. Woods bogeyed his first hole of the day, but came back with a birdie on the par-5 5th hole and a 70-foot bomb on the 9th for a birdie that hopped off the back lip about five inches before dropping in the middle of the cup, leaving Woods to only grin about his good fortune.

Tiger is now tied at 7-under with Zach Johnson, George McNeill and his playing partner for the first two days, Jim Furyk. One shot back are Phil Mickelson, Camilo Villegas and a host of others golfers that are also thirsty for a win.

If Quail Hollow wanted a star-studded leaderboard for the weekend, they got it. The problem is, can Tiger regain his mojo from Thursday? I guess a Friday afternoon trip to the range will decide that. Like Tiger said, it's just nice to be able to do that again.