No one is going declare Tiger Woods "back" after two rounds in a limited-field event in December, but his work Friday was enough to inspire a bit of optimism about what lies ahead.
Rolling through the Hero World Challenge course in the Bahamas as he teed off first and played by himself after Justin Rose had to withdraw with back pain, Woods corrected several mistakes from Thursday's opening round and shot a 7-under 65 on the day. The bogey-free round moved him to 6 under overall and was a welcome bounceback after a second-nine collapse led to an opening 73.