Woods can be really (30)-something to see

By Bill Dwyre

June 14, 2008 7 AM PT

LA JOLLA -- Sometimes, even the best golfer in the universe doesn’t know how good he is. Sometimes, Tiger Woods sets a goal and then exceeds it.

That’s what happened here Friday, in the second round of the U.S. Open golf tournament at the Torrey Pines Golf Course and Torture Emporium.

Woods, who had knee surgery after the Masters and was supposed to be damaged goods for this Open, showed an occasional limp as he played his opening nine, the back nine at Torrey, in two-over-par 38.

He wasn’t a happy camper as he left the par-five 18th green, his ninth hole of the day.

“I bogeyed 16 and 17, made mistakes on both holes,” he said. “And then, with 18 playing as easy as it can, I didn’t birdie that.”

He was three over par for the tournament at that stage, and while his competition wasn’t exactly burning up the course, Woods was struggling too. The difference is he is a 32-year-old veteran with 13 major titles to his name and complete knowledge of how those came to pass.

“I just had to be patient,” he said.

“To be honest with you, I was just trying to get back to even par for the tournament.”

That was the goal.

Then he birdied four of the first five holes on the back, his card for that span reading 3-3-3-3-3, and he ended up shooting a 30 for a 68. That put him two under for the tournament and one shot behind leader Stuart Appleby’s 139.

Somebody in the news conference afterward actually asked Woods if he had looked back at his back-nine 30, saw places where he might have done better and had any regrets about that.

To his credit, Woods laughed and said the 30 was just fine.

For those who don’t follow golf or know the history of how the United States Golf Assn. sets up its courses for its national championship, a score of 30 may not resonate.

For perspective, consider that some of these holes are so long that several have been designated as alternate landing spots if San Diego International Airport is fogged in. Mothers have been warned to keep children out of the rough because they may never see them again.

The only hope for the golfers, especially by Sunday, is that some of the long stuff will be well trampled by then.

There are so many spectators here, many of them brainlessly hollering “in the hole!” after every shot, that one wonders how business in downtown San Diego is doing during the day. They reportedly are selling 42,000 tickets here every day, and the best guess is that there have been zero no-shows.

So, amidst impossible golf holes and never-ending noise and chaos, Woods focused on getting to even par and then topped himself.

“The putts just started flying in,” he said, acknowledging that none were tap-ins -- each of the first four were more than 15 feet.

Woods played in the same superstar threesome as he did Thursday, with world No. 2 Phil Mickelson and No. 3 Adam Scott. The most intriguing part of that, until Woods went on his birdie run, was the Woods-Mickelson shirt selection for the day.

Woods wore lime green and a perceptive member of the gallery best summed up Mickelson’s attire.

“Hey, Phil,” the fan yelled. “I ate a bowl of your shirt for dinner last night.”

And so it was that Lime Green Tiger and Pea Soup Phil, along with Baby Blue Adam, began Friday’s tour of Torrey Pines hell.

Woods looked slightly off at first, then shook everybody awake with one of those Tiger moments that is a reminder of who he is.

On No. 13, the USGA decided to go Friday with its controversial back tee. That’s the one that demands a carry over a canyon of at least 240 yards on the drive and makes the hole 613. The tee is so far west that the closest population center is Catalina and so high on a cliff that Everest climbers train there.

Woods, who may lose a golf ball some day when it actually goes into orbit, made an eagle on the hole. He hit his driver around 358 yards and his second shot about 262, to seven feet behind the pin, then made the putt.

It was a Tiger moment, and it got him from a dangerously slipping three over par to one over and thinking comeback.

Another Tiger moment was his description afterward of the second shot.

“I had, let’s see, 248 to the front of the green,” he said. “So I just cut a five-wood in.”

Certainly, there are others who can do that with a five-wood, but we won’t know who they are until they start televising tour highlights from Jupiter.

Nobody asked Woods what his goals were for the last two rounds. Probably a good thing. If he said, “I just want to go out and make a few birdies,” the other guys might have packed their bags and headed home.

Bill Dwyre can be reached at [email protected]. For previous columns, go to latimes.com/dwyre.

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Top of the world

How Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott fared in Friday’s second round:

TIGER WOODS

-3 -- 68

T -- 2nd

PHIL MICKELSON

+4 -- 75

T -- 35th

ADAM SCOTT

+2 -- 73