Tiger Woods at Quicken Loans National 2015: Friday Leaderboard Score, Reaction

Tiger Woods continued to climb the Quicken Loans National leaderboard Friday with a five-under 66 in the second round. It left him at eight-under overall and one stroke off the lead in an eight-way tie for second place with the afternoon wave of play still to come at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Gainesville, Virginia.

The 14-time major champion serves as the host for this week's event and captured the title in both 2009 and 2012. Those positive vibes are seemingly fueling a sudden resurgence to the point where he's playing his best golf in two years and heads into the weekend as a key part of the conversation.

Let's check out how his second round played out with a glance at the scorecard. That's followed by the tournament leaderboard and a recap of another encouraging trip around the course for Woods.

Round 2 Scorecard

Hole	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Total
Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Total
Par	4	3	4	4	5	4	3	4	4	35
Score	4	3	4	4	6	3	3	4	3	34
Overall	-3	-3	-3	-3	-2	-3	-3	-3	-4	-
Par	4	4	4	3	5	4	4	5	3	36
Score	3	4	4	2	4	4	4	4	3	32
Overall	-5	-5	-5	-6	-7	-7	-7	-8	-8	-

Tournament Leaderboard

Friday Recap

Things looked grim during the early going of Woods' round Thursday. He carded bogeys on three of the first four holes and appeared destined for another forgettable early exit. Instead, he rebounded in terrific fashion to post six birdies and no bogeys the rest of the way for a three-under start.

Afterward, he talked about his comfort level at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, which is hosting this event for the first time, as noted by Bob Harig of ESPN.com.

"We worked on a little bit of my through swing, fixed a couple of things I felt like were off and put it to good use the last six days," he said. "I really felt comfortable here. I'm hitting shots. I've played three practice rounds out here, which I normally don't do. It was important for me to get out here and play."

Of course, while there have been some flashes of vintage form in Woods' game at times over the past couple of years, it's usually been one step forward and two steps back. Backing up Thursday's success with another strong round was essential.

He put together another middling start—taking advantage of the early holes is one area that's still a work in progress—with four pars to open followed by a bogey on No. 14.

Recently, that dropped shot would have usually caused him to enter a tailspin. This week, he's doing a much better job of bouncing back, and that trend continued as he got the shot right back with a birdie on the 15th after a close approach, as highlighted by the PGA Tour:

Just like that, he got back on track. He started landing tee shot after tee shot in the short grass, an element of his game that's been completely absent for a long time. Hitting approaches from the fairway is a lot easier than doing so from the rough, bunker or behind a tree, his more common placement as of late.

That led directly to more looks at birdie, as showcased by Golf Channel's Tiger Tracker:

Woods converted that putt at the 18th, his ninth hole of the day, to move to one-under for the round and four-under overall.

He shaved another stroke off that total on the first. Once again, he found the fairway off the tee, and his approach shot was a laser within a few feet that he easily tapped home. The PGA Tour spotlighted the outstanding second shot:

After a couple of pars, the polarizing 39-year-old superstar hopped aboard the birdie train once again at the fourth. A solid tee shot on the par three left him about 20 feet, and he rolled it in. Jason Sobel of ESPN pointed out he'd made a long climb after being outside the top 100 early in the event:

Woods followed that up with another birdie at No. 5. He reached the par-five green in two but almost let an opportunity slip away as his eagle attempt came up well short. He rebounded to knock in the mid-range putt to reach seven-under overall.

Things got a bit ugly on No. 8. His tee shot found the right rough, and he couldn't get enough power on his second shot, which came up about 60 yards short of the green in a bunker. He chopped it out but left himself a nearly 40-foot putt for birdie.

Tiger Tracker laid out the scene that came next:

He parred the ninth to finish a fantastic round, particularly by his 2015 standards.

Jonathan Coachman of ESPN summed up a day where Woods turned back the clock:

He even started to get some of his swagger back, as Kyle Porter of CBS Sports noted:

As ESPN Stats & Info explained during the middle portion of the round, it's been a long time since he's been in this type of position:

All told, Woods put together two straight rounds of golf good enough to win a tournament. He stopped getting himself in constant trouble off the tee, and everything else started falling into place. He'll need to putt more consistently over the weekend, though.

Obviously the type of golf he's playing is highly encouraging. His confidence is seemingly growing with each birdie, and he's striking the ball with much more fluidity. But each successive round is a serious test because all it takes is one terrible afternoon to erase all of the progress.

There will be plenty of eyes on him Saturday to see how he handles the increasing pressure.