Woods catapults himself back into contention with 63

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Tiger Woods was 6 under through five holes in the second round before anyone had time to notice his rally.

GRAND BLANC, Mich. -- There's hot, and then there's really hot.

Tiger Woods made that distinction clear at the Buick Open when he went from steaming to just plain smoking hot.

And when he walked off the final green after shooting a 9-under 63 on Friday, Woods had soared from a tie for 95th into a tie for third as the afternoon pairings were just going off. Now, that was more like it.

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Woods had been so frustrated with his opening 71 -- a stroke higher than the average 70.103 for the field -- that he didn't even bother to visit the range afterwards to work things out.

"I normally do, but I was a little bit hot yesterday, so I decided to just go home and get away from it for a little bit," Woods said. "And (I) came out today with a better understanding of what I was going to do and just hit the ball.

"I drove it great yesterday. Just didn't hit my irons as close and didn't putt well, so I was just going to drive it just as good today and hit my irons a bit better and see if I can pour some in."

He certainly did. Starting on the back nine, Woods opened with a birdie-birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie start to reach 6 under for the round after five holes.

The eagle-2 on No. 12 was a hole-out from 41 yards on the 340-yard par 4. Two holes later, he drove the 322-yard par 4 and two-putted for birdie.

Woods made another birdie at the par-5 16th hole before a three-putt from 60 feet temporarily stalled the charge. He rebounded with a birdie at the par 5 first hole, where a 26-foot eagle putt lipped out. There was another lip-out at the third. He polished off the round with birdies at the seventh and eighth holes.

There was nothing new or different about Woods' pre-round preparations after the opening 18 had left him more than slightly miffed.

"No," he said. "The same. Absolutely the same. Same routine. Didn't change anything. Just made sure I was committed to what I was doing out there today, and I got my speed a little bit better. Yesterday my speed was bad. (Today) the one hole, 18, didn't have my speed very good and ended up costing me a shot."

Woods hit 10 of 14 fairways and 16 greens in regulation. He also had 27 putts, five fewer than Thursday's opening round.

The bounce-back was reminiscent, although not quite as spectacular, of the 2005 Buick Open when Woods shot 71-61. He finished tied for second that year behind Vijay Singh. The 63 was the lowest score he's had, in relationship to par, since the 61 at Warwick Hills four years ago.

Woods had talked after the opening round of patience. "I positioned myself so far back yesterday that it wasn't going to happen (quickly)," he said.

Then he went out and proved himself wrong, and explained how he did it.

"If I birdie the holes you're supposed to birdie, the two drivable par 4s, the par 5 and sprinkle in a couple here and there, you're going to come up with a round in the mid-60s, and that would get me within touch of the leaders," he said. "And as of right now, 12 is leading, and that probably won't be the lead at the end of the day. But at least I'm back in the tournament.

"As I said, I thought it was more of a process to get myself back in the tournament. And as I said, I was so far back yesterday -- either back on this golf course is a lot. And you know, I'm just trying to make sure I put a dent in that each and every day, and shoot something in the mid 60s today.

One of the things that must be guarded against at Warwick Hills is over-exuberance.

"You've just got to make sure that you don't get overly aggressive to get it all back," Woods said. "That's one of the things you can't do on this golf course. This golf course is playing soft and easy, you should birdie every hole, but you also can make a few mistakes, like I did yesterday. If I shot that number again today, I'm out of here."

But, no, Woods never considered the possibility of missing the cut for the second straight event, after failing to reach the weekend at the British Open at Turnberry two weeks ago.

Of course not.

The galleries following Woods' group -- he played the first two rounds with Jonathan Byrd and Todd Hamilton -- grew as red number after red number went up after Woods' name. The rapidly changing leaderboards caught everybody's attention.

"He's always on everyone's mind," said Vaughn Taylor, who shot 68 and is in at 133, one stroke better than Woods. "When you're out there playing, you don't really think about it.

"But I'm sure the closer we get to Sunday, and the closer he gets to the top, guys always think about it. It's just one of those things. You've got to play your own game, stay in your own world, and just play golf and not worry about what he's doing."