Tiger Woods score: Putting woes continue despite strong Round 2 at the Memorial

Tiger Woods played his first seven holes of the 2018 Memorial Tournament in 4 over. Then he played his next 29 in 9 under. He's now 5 under overall and squarely in the thick of the tournament. Woods still trails leader Kyle Stanley and Joaquin Niemann by six, but he's inside the top 25 and will have a late morning tee time to try and make up some ground on Saturday at a place where he has won five times.

After a Thursday back nine (front nine on the course) of 33 in Round 1, Woods again shot 33 on that same side of the course to open up his second round. Then he got scorching hot. Woods holed out from 95 yards away on the par-5 11th and flagged (like, literally hit the flag) on the following hole. After a weather delay, he missed the putt (which was a constant theme) but the two-shot turbo boost propelled him to a 34 on the back nine, and he ended with a 5-under 67 on the day, which was one off the day's best round.

Woods has continued to struggle off the tee and with his putter this week. He lost nearly four strokes to the field on Friday with his Scotty Cameron and made only 12 feet of putts on the back nine (which is nearly impossible to do!).

But boy has he been good elsewhere. Woods finished second on the day in approach shots and is second in the field on the week in strokes gained from tee to green. Those two shots above on Nos. 11 and 12 should give a pretty good indication of just how locked in he's been with his iron play. And he's been equally good around the greens where he's gained nearly four strokes with his wedge play.

Slow starts at the last two events (Memorial and Players Championship) have thrown folks off the scent a bit, but Woods has recovered from those valleys nicely. He finished T11 at The Players after playing the first 36 holes in just 1 under (he played the final 36 in 10 under). It didn't take as long this week for Woods to find a little bit of a groove, although we'll see if he can sustain it over the final two rounds.

Following what was a bit of a rough start on the first day of the event, the bounce back is nice for Tiger from a bigger picture, too. It would have not been the greatest thing for him to go into the U.S. Open in two weeks with just two competitive rounds under his belt between The Players Championship and the second major of the year. Instead, he'll get four in total with an opportunity on Saturday and Sunday to take a little momentum into Shinnecock and possibly even contend to win his first event in nearly five years.