Tiger Woods has won twice already this season on the PGA Tour and he would love to add a third victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which continues on Friday and is a tournament where Woods is the defending champion.
According to ESPN.com, Woods started off strong on Thursday, shooting a 3-under-par 69 to start off Friday just four stroke behind leader Justin Rose, who shot a 7-under 65. Woods has been using his putter effectively and he had an eagle, four birdies and three bogeys to try and get his eight career win at the event, which would tie him with Sam Snead for the most at one tournament.
Woods has been putting fantastic lately and used it to win the WGC-Cadillac Invitational last week after making 27 birdies and using his putter a career-best 100 times over the rounds. Woods is getting hot at the right time, as he has won two tournaments before the Masters for the first time in nearly a decade and is now the favorite for the major.
Woods could also reach back and get his number one ranking from Rory McIlroy with a win at the Invitational at Bay Hill. Woods was solid on his opening shots, making the fairways and ending up on 12 of 18 greens。
"I played all right today. I didn't hit it my best, that's for sure," Woods said. "But I scored well. I took care of the par 5s, but I didn't birdie them the way I like to. I hit some bad shots but was fortunate to get the ball on the green and make a putt."
Woods won his 17th WGC event and is now in an excellent position to get back to the top of the sport after falling so far. Woods has been comfortable this year and even went public with his relationship with Lindsey Vonn, something he hasn't done in the past.
The couple released pictures on Facebook and Woods has been open with the media about it and it seems to be helping with his play. He won his 76th PGA tour event two weeks ago at Doral and he could be back in the number one spot for the first time in nearly three years, since he dropped out in October of 2010.
Woods will tee off at 12:45 with Rose and Ernie Els, while John Huh is behind Rose along with John Rollins and Brad Fritsch, who are at 68.