Arnold Palmer Invitational 2012: Biggest Obstacles to a Tiger Woods Victory

Thanks to an incredible push that featured a seven-under performance on Friday, Tiger Woods finds himself tied atop the leaderboard with Charlie Wi after two rounds in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.

Woods has been playing some excellent golf as of late, but he is still searching for that ever-elusive PGA Tour win. Tiger has come close to winning PGA Tour events several times over the past year, but he hasn't been able to cash in. A win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational would give him a great deal of momentum heading into the Masters, though.

Here are the three biggest obstacles standing between Woods and his first PGA win since the 2009 BMW Championship.

Graeme McDowell

Although Northern Ireland's own Graeme McDowell is only ranked 17th in the world currently, it wasn't long ago that the former U.S. Open champion was in the top five. After an even-par 72 in the first round, McDowell exploded on Friday for the low round of the day with a nine-under 63.

That leaves him just one shot behind Woods. McDowell only has one career PGA Tour win in his own right, so he would obviously love to come out on top.

Like Woods has been lately, McDowell is a pretty inconsistent player. He tends to go from looking like the best player in the world in one round to being completely incompetent in the next.

You never know what you're going to get with McDowell and that is the main thing that holds him back. If he can string a couple more solid rounds together, though, then Tiger could be in trouble.

Justin Rose

Unlike McDowell, consistency is the name of the game for Justin Rose. The world's eighth-ranked player seems to be in the mix every week, and this week is certainly no different. Rose is hanging around four shots behind Woods and isn't likely to go away any time soon. He has shot three-under par in each of his first two rounds and is just an all-around solid player.

Rose isn't going to wow anyone most of the time, but he is a very tough player to shake. Woods won't be able to afford a lull in his game because Rose is quite able to take advantage of any opening that he's given.

Eventually Woods is going to have to string together four great rounds in a row rather than just one or two scattered throughout the tournament. If he doesn't do that this weekend, then Rose will be there to pick up the pieces.

Himself

As much as Tiger has to worry about the players chasing him, his main concern should be his own game. When Woods is at his best, there is nobody better and nobody that can beat him. The key for him is to make sure that he doesn't lapse this weekend.

Tiger has at least one or two aspects in his game working at nearly every tournament, but rarely has he brought his complete game to the table. Thus far in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, he has.

Tiger's driving distance and accuracy has been sublime, his approaches have been impressive and his putting has been much improved. It seems like the main thing holding Tiger back is his mental state.

Physically he appears to be in great shape, but he probably over thinks things a lot of the time and that gets him into trouble. If he can just focus like vintage Tiger, then he should be a winner this weekend.