Woods ‘proud’ of himself after battling to equal 19th at Masters

AUGUSTA, Ga. : Tiger Woods fought again from a poor begin within the second spherical on the Masters on Friday, incomes a mini victory of types by making the midway minimize at his first match since a career-threatening automobile crash.

Though a distant 9 strokes behind chief Scottie Scheffler, Woods goes into the weekend equal nineteenth at one-over-par 145 at Augusta National.

It wouldn’t be a foul spot for any 46-year-old, a lot much less somebody whose profession appeared in jeopardy when he was badly injured in single-car rollover final February.

“I’m proud of the fact that my whole (support) team got me into this position,” he stated.

“We worked hard to get me here to where I had an opportunity.”

It appears extraordinarily unlikely that he’ll earn a sixth Green Jacket on Sunday – he was positioned no worse than sixth after 36 holes in every of his earlier wins – however he was hardly able to throw within the towel.

“Hopefully I’ll have one of those light bulb moments and turn it on in the weekend and get it done,” he stated.

“If you are within five or six going into the back nine, anything can happen. I need to get myself there. That’s the key.”

Spectators with weekend tickets will need to have been holding their collective breath when Woods bogeyed 4 of the primary 4 holes in cool, blustery circumstances, a missed minimize looming as a risk.

He didn’t do an terrible lot unsuitable on what was essentially the most troublesome stretch of the course, a barely mishit shot right here and there, but it surely was beginning to add as much as a probably large rating.

“I got a couple of bad gusts and also made a couple of bad swings on top of that. Then on (the fourth hole) I ended up in a divot,” he stated.

“It was just like, okay, what else can go wrong?”

He was two beneath the remainder of the day, taking pictures two-over-par 74.

And together with his post-round interviews executed he headed off for an extended ice bathtub.

Asked how he felt, he stated: “I don’t really feel nearly as good as I’d prefer to really feel.

“I expected to be sore and not feel my best for sure. I can walk this golf course. That’s not a problem, but going ballistically at shots and hitting shot shapes off of uneven lies, that puts a whole new challenge to it.”

(Reporting by Andrew Both; enhancing by Richard Pullin)