Tiger Woods is lurking as the Arnold Palmer Invitational hits the weekend, as the number two golfer in the world is four strokes back of leaders Justin Rose and Bill Haas after shooting a 70 and is tied for seventh place at five-under par.
Woods was looking fantastic for most of the round and was within one shot of the lead at one point and tied with Rose, but he finished with three straight birdies to stay back in the pack. Rose himself had the chance to take the outright lead from Haas, but he had a three putt bogey and finished with a 70 as well. Haas was solid all round and had a 6-under-66 to tie with Rose at the top of the leaderboard. John Huh is right behind them after shooting a 69.
Many players have had issues on the tough end of the course, as Haas did on Thursday when he had a chance at the lead but put his drive shot in the far bunker before putting for a bogey. Rose had a solid run at the end after going for an eagle and a birdie on the 16th and 17th holes and was able to hang on for the lead.
"The good news is we've got 36 holes to go," Woods said. "We've got a long way to go. And certainly four shots can be made up."
Woods hit the ball much better early in the round on Friday, but lost out on the chance at getting atop the leaderboard with his rough finish. The 16th hole started it off for him and he hit a shot long from the bunker and it went into the water on a one hop before starting off again with a tee shot that went into the rough.
Woods had been putting great heading into the tournament but it failed him at the end on Friday as he missed a short putt on the fourth hole and one on the 12th that ringed around the hole and stayed out. The top of the leaderboard is stacked with 16 players that are within five shots and Woods has the most to gain, as he could take back his number one ranking with a win.
This year Woods has been excellent, winning two tournaments ahead of the Masters for the first time since 2005. Woods won at Torrey Pines at the Farmers Insurance Open and then took the WGC-Cadillac Championship after a fantastic putting performance at Doral. Woods made 27 birdied and had a career-best 100 putts over the tournament.
Phil Mickelson continued his rough start and missed the cut at Bay Hill after shooting a 7-over-79 on the day and he missed the 3-over cut by a whopping five shots after dealing with a few tough holes. Through seven tournaments Michaelson has been outside the top 30 in four of them while winning in Phoenix at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
Woods has a chance to make up ground on Saturday as he tees off around 2:00 PM and he would like to get into position to defend his title at the tournament from last year.
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