Saturday 3 December 2016 17:28, UK
Tiger Woods bounced back from his erratic opening 73 as he made huge strides up the Hero World Challenge leaderboard with a flawless 65 on day two in the Bahamas.
Woods double-bogeyed two of the last three holes to undo his flying start to his first competitive round in almost 16 months on Thursday, when he was tied for the lead on four under after eight holes before stuttering home in 40 shots.
But he kept a bogey off his card in a remarkable second round, in which he cruised to the turn in 33 and then reeled off four birdies in five holes from the 11th before parring in to close on six under at the halfway stage.
The tournament host was out on his own in the first group after Justin Rose, the only player in the 18-man field to shoot worse the Woods on day one, withdrew from the event having aggravated a back problem.
Woods got off to an encouraging start with a birdie at the opening hole, converting a precise wedge approach to four feet, and he added another at the sixth after splashing out of sand to 12 feet and nailing another solid putt.
He did well to save par after a wayward drive at the eighth, and he kept his ball on the short grass at the long ninth, where his first round started to unravel as he struggled to a six.
Woods clipped a wedge to tap-in range for birdie at nine, reaching the turn in less than an hour and a half, and he thought he had landed another at 10 only to see his 20-foot putt lip out on the left.
But he atoned by making a well-crafted four at the long 11th and he then came within inches of a hole-in-one at the tough par-three 12th, where his purely-struck five-iron left him another tap-in for birdie.
The 14-time major champion holed from 10 feet for another gain at 14 and picked up a further shot at 15, his fourth birdie out of five par-fives on the Albany layout, although he looked likely to give at least one shot back at the next when he hit his worst drive of the day into the waste area on the right, narrowly avoiding a bush.
Woods could not find the fairway with his second and over-hit his third from the scrub, but the famous Woods fist-pump soon made a reappearance after he rolled in a superb 25-foot putt to salvage his par four.
The 40-year-old missed the green with his approach to the final green from the middle of the fairway, but he did well to putt from the fringe to three feet before rattling in the par putt to complete an excellent day's work.
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