NORTON, Mass. – A year ago, Tiger Woods was cleared by doctors to hit a golf ball. It was a big moment in his comeback from a fourth back surgery. Since then, he’s had a few more big moments, as well as several smaller ones – including, perhaps, Saturday’s second round, as Tiger’s bogey-free 66 moved him into a tie for 21st at the halfway point of the Dell Technologies Championship. It’s his second bogey-free round in his last four competitive rounds. Until last week’s third round of THE NORTHERN TRUST, he had not produced a bogey-free round all season. What does it mean in the scheme of things? Woods thinks it’s a sign that his swing is getting more consistent – especially with some recent tinkering to his TaylorMade M3 driver, including an additional degree of loft and a switch to an old shaft, Mitsubishi’s Diamana D+ White Board. On Saturday, Woods hit 12 of 14 fairways after hitting 10 of 14 in his first-round 72 at TPC Boston. “I’m keeping the ball in play a little better,â€� Woods said. “I can cheer for my bad ones – they’re hanging in there. A couple of tee shots were kind of borderline but still in the fairway. I think that’s probably the biggest difference.â€� Of course, the biggest difference from a year ago – when Woods tweeted out a video with the caption “Dr. gave me the ok to start pitchingâ€� – is that he no longer fears the full swing. He recalled when he first began swinging, he was “very nervous because I didn’t want to screw it up. This is it. So if it doesn’t fuse, there really is no other option.â€� So he took a cautious approach. After being cleared to hit long irons, his first 4-iron carried “about 90 yards,â€� he said. “I was just so apprehensive to start letting it go.â€� That feeling, he acknowledged, isn’t completely gone, even though his comeback has progressed much faster than he has imagined. “I didn’t want to get hurt again,â€� he said. “I didn’t want to feel that pain again. Every now and again throughout this entire year, I’ve probably golfed and played a different shot here and there because there is a bit of me that doesn’t want to feel that way again.â€� What he does want to feel, of course, is a trophy in his hands again for the first time in five years. He’ll start Sunday’s third round seven shots off the pace set by Webb Simpson, and with 20 players ahead of him on the leaderboard. “I’ve got some work to do still,â€� he said. “I’m six back. This is a golf course you can’t sit still on. You have to keep making birdies. You have to keep getting after it.â€� It’s a tall order but not an impossible one. Given that a year ago, he was limited to chip shots in his backyard, he’ll gladly take on the challenge.
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