Tiger Woods in a groove at Torrey Pines

There is something completely unsurprising, yet exciting, about Tiger Woods playing good golf at Torrey Pines. The site of seven of his PGA Tour wins including that “he can’t step foot on this course without mentioning it” U.S. Open victory, when Woods gets his golf game going at this golf course things just seem at peace in the golf world.

On Friday at the Farmers Insurance Open, Tiger did what you’re supposed to do during your one tango with the North Course. He fired a 7-under 65 that put him at 11-under through two rounds and atop the leaderboard after two days. Woods has definitely been in this position before at Torrey Pines, but to go this low this early usually means success for Tiger. Twice before Tiger has bested his start this week, posting 12-under after two days in two of his wins here, and the only other time he’s been leading after two rounds, in 2008, he went on to dust the field by eight shots.

[Related: Rocco Mediate rips Tiger Woods’ golf swing]

But it’s worth mentioning that Tiger in ’08 and Tiger in 2013 are different animals. Rocco Mediate made comments this week that Woods doesn’t have the same golf swing to produce the shots he pulled off during that U.S. Open win in ’08, and while his golf swing is in a beautiful place right now (seriously, how good is he hitting his driver?!), he still has those demons in the back of his head that has held him back at times when he’s been in a position such at this.

There was an interesting moment during his post-round interview with The Golf Channel’s Steve Sands. Tiger mentioned, “we’ve got a long way to go” when Sands asked about the 36-hole lead, which might sound like an athlete’s line to most, but for Tiger, it actually means something.

Woods was brilliant earlier in his career at maintaining a lead, but this past season wasn’t his best, especially in the majors, when he was in contention heading into the weekend.

[Related: Tiger’s ex-wife Elin Nordegren continues expanding her mansion]

Still, the golf swing looks very much like it did at the end of 2012 when it seemed Woods couldn’t miss a fairway, and despite the bumpy greens of Southern California (Tiger said after his round “the greens are not very good out there at all,” and then called them “squirrely”), he is picking his spots to make birdie and if he can do what he did to the South Course on Thursday over the weekend, this thing won’t even be close.

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