Tiger Woods follows up Thursday 66 with Friday 65 at Doral, leads by two

It feels a little like a blast from the past when Tiger Woods gets into the types of zone he’s currently in at the WGC-Cadillac Championship.

Woods, who already has a win this season and despite some poor play over his last two events seems as confident as he has in years with his golf swing, has been dialed in for 36 holes at Doral so far this week, and followed up his opening round 66 on Thursday with a 65 on Friday to take the lead by two shots heading into the weekend.

Tiger not only is playing some great golf but he’s breaking some of his own records. His 17 birdies through two rounds is the most he’s ever made in his opening 36 holes and that’s despite making par on three par-5s to start.

Woods is swinging incredible well, but it’s the putting that really brings back memories of the Tiger we used to know. On Thursday he took just 23 putts and on Friday just 25 putts but it’s the way he’s stroking the ball on the greens that might be the most impressive. Every putt seems to be dropping dead center, and it isn’t like he’s had a bunch of tap-ins for birdie. Woods has been rolling the rock incredibly well from 15-25 feet, and when you combine that with the fact that he hit 15 greens on Friday, you can’t help but expect a round in the mid-60s.

Now comes the stats that back up just how dominant Tiger was earlier in his career; in seven previous WGC events that Tiger has been leading after 36 holes he’s gone on to win all of them. The big difference this week might just be how well everyone else seems to be playing the Blue Monster, and who is near the top of the leaderboard.

Graeme McDowell, a man we’ve seen take down Woods when he’s had a big lead, is just two shots back after his Friday 67, and Phil Mickelson sits just three shots back alongside Steve Stricker at 10-under. The list of big names doesn’t stop there, as Bubba Watson and Freddie Jacobson sit at 9-under, and Charl Schwartzel is tied with Keegan Bradley at 8-under.

You could argue that this is the most stacked leaderboard we’ve seen in years on the PGA Tour, with Rory McIlroy being the only big name missing from the top-10 and even he had a better day on Friday than he did on Thursday.

But the story is obviously Tiger Woods. We saw last year that he was still able to win multiple events in a season, but if he could snag this title to go with his win at Torrey Pines you could really make the case that Woods is back to where we once saw him, and there would be no argument about who the best in the world is right now.

There are still two rounds to go, but for now Tiger looks unbeatable. The good news is we get two more days of watching this leaderboard and this Tiger.

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