US Open Leaderboard 2012: Tiger Woods in Terrific Shape Heading into Round 3

It was a roller coaster ride of a day for Tiger Woods at Day 2 of the 2012 US Open at Olympic Club in San Francisco.

After a birdie on No. 3 and the subsequent collapse of Thursday’s clubhouse leader Michael Thompson, Tiger briefly held the lead by himself at two-under.

Three bogeys in a row on holes No. 5 through No. 7 and Woods placed himself back into the masses.  Yet, a two-under on the back nine gives him some serious confidence heading into the weekend—something he seriously needs.

The downfall of Woods recently has been his lack of mental edge. He seems lost and confused at times. In the past two days, he has looked like a man who came into play with a strong game plan that has been almost flawlessly executed halfway through the tournament.

The fast fairways are a death wish for heavy hitters (just ask Bubba Watson) and Woods adjusted by shortening his swing to ensure he didn’t miss the fairway. He also adjusted to the speed of the greens, which were ridiculously fast. He hit some beauties on greens where others were completely misreading.

Woods teetered on the line on a few occasions (bunker on No. 5), but ultimately played a round almost completely void of cypress trees, sand and pushed putts. When he did get into trouble, Woods never panicked and kept his composure like the champion he once was.

After playing an almost flawless round on Thursday, he endured adversity and survived. He is as level-headed as we’ve seen in a long time. With a watered-down leaderboard void of Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy, and a 17-year-old named Beau Hossler lingering around, the leaderboard is wide open.

If there were ever a chance for Tiger to win his first major since 2008 and 15^th overall to finally get the 1,000-pound monkey off his back, this is it.

He is playing the course beautifully, toting a steady putter and is mentally locked in.

I’m not saying Woods is back, but he’s certainly making enormous strides this weekend to get back on track in his quest to surpass Jack Nicklaus as the greatest golfer to ever grace this earth. 

2012 US Open Leaderboard Through Round 2

T1	David Toms			-1	E	F	69	70	-	-	139
T1	Jim Furyk			-1	-1	F	70	69	-	-	139
T1	Tiger Woods			-1	E	F	69	70	-	-	139
T4	Michael Thompson			+1	+5	F	66	75	-	-	141
T4	Graeme McDowell			+1	+2	F	69	72	-	-	141
T4	Nicolas Colsaerts			+1	-1	F	72	69	-	-	141
T4	John Peterson			+1	E	F	71	70	-	-	141

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For a complete look at the full leaderboard, click here. 

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