Tiger On A Tear: Amazing Birdie Has Woods 4 Shots Back At 2012 British Open

The third round of the 2012 Open Championship will once again tee off in the middle of the night for those hoping to catch the action live stateside. The first group, Dutch golfer Joost Luiten by his lonesome, is set to tee off 3:10 a.m. ET, with pairings going off in 10 minute spreads over the next seven hours through 10:20 a.m. ET.

Brandt Snedeker is the current leader at 10-under overall. Tiger Woods is in the second-to-last pairing to tee off on the day at four strokes off the lead.

With Round 2 of the 2012 British Open coming to a close, the tee times for Round 3 have been released.

Tiger Woods is down just four strokes from the lead with a 6-under and will be teeing off on Saturday at 10:10 a.m. ET. Woods will be trying to chase down the leader, fellow American Brandt Snedeker, who’s sitting at 10-under through the first two rounds of play. Snedeker will be teeing off at 10:20 a.m. ET.

A number of players are deep into red numbers at the 2012 British Open. Phil Mickelson was not one of them over the first two days of the tournament, and as a result, he ended up well below the cut line, which landed at 3-over.

The top 70 players and ties make it to the weekend at the Open Championship, meaning that the 16 players tied for 68th place at 3-over made the cut at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.

Brandt Snedeker matched Adam Scott’s record-tying feat on Friday at the 2012 British Open, and Scott nearly kept up with Snedeker. But Tiger Woods’ brilliant birdie on his 36th hole means he will be the talk of the tournament heading into the weekend at the Open Championship.

Snedeker tied the Royal Lytham & St. Annes course record that Scott tied on Thursday with his 6-under 64 on Friday, and moved to 10-under for the tournament and a one-shot lead. Snedeker has yet to make a bogey in two days on the course, and has 10 birdies.

After following an early bogey with four birdies -- including an amazing one on the par-4 18th -- Adam Scott conceded he had a case of the jitters as he realized he was taking aim at clubhouse leader Brandt Snedeker.

“A bit of a shaky start,” Scott told ESPN after following his opening-round 6-under 64 with a 67 to move into second place, just one shot back of Snedeker’s 10-under. “I got a little nervous after 11 and I made a birdie and started moving up the leaderboard a little bit and understanding what kind of position I was moving because the leaderboard was separating.

After two rounds, Tiger Woods is officially stalking the leaders at the 2012 British Open. And all it took was a little classic Tiger magic to do it.

Woods finished his day at Royal Lytham & St. Annes with a fantastic chip-in birdie from a deep bunker off the 18th green that gave him his second consecutive 3-under 67 of the week. After landing in the pot bunker, Woods blasted his ball out of the sand and just over the high bunker wall, and it rolled softly in to a loud roar from the crowd.

Tiger Woods has a ways to go to get to the top of the 2012 British Open leaderboard. But he’s staying at the head of the pack chasing Brandt Snedeker and Adam Scott.

A birdie on the par-4 16th hole at Royal Lytham & St. Annes got Tiger back to 2-under for the day and 5-under for the tournament, cancelling out a bogey on the par-5 11th. It was also Woods’ first birdie on a back nine hole at the Open Championship this week, which may help him build confidence on that rough stretch of holes heading into the weekend.

Tiger Woods started his second round of the 2012 British Open in steady fashion Friday, hoping to close the gap between himself and current-leader Brandt Snedeker, who is at 10-under par. After playing solid golf on his opening nine holes, Woods has done exactly that.

Tiger began his second round at 3-under par after shooting a 67 on Thursday, but found himself seven shots behind the tournament leader. After birdies at holes No. 4 and No. 6, however, Woods has reached 5-under par for the tournament and sits alone in third place. He now enters his back nine holes, where he shot a disappointing 1-over 37 during Thursday’s round.

Official World Golf Ranking top golfer Luke Donald is playing for a bit more than the Claret Jug this week at the 2012 British Open; he’s also doing his best to protect his No. 1 ranking atop that prestigous list.

Donald’s second round of 68 helped move him up the leaderboard and into the top-10 for the tournament on Friday morning. He recorded five birdies to go along with three bogies during his up-and-down round, and he now finds himself at 2-under par, eight shots behind second round leader Brandt Snedecker (10-under).

Friday’s second round of the 2012 British Open in Lancashire has seen an unexpected competitor shoot to the top of the leaderboard and establish early dominance. At the end of his second round of play, American golfer Brandt Snedeker is sitting at 10-under and has a five-stroke lead on the field.

Snedeker shot 6-under for the day with six birdies -- including four on his front nine -- and no bogeys. Paul Lawrie is at 5-under (even for the day) through eight holes, and Adam Scott is tied for second place at 5-under through six holes on Friday.

In hopes of straightening out a swing that has gone horribly wrong, Phil Mickelson made a “very rare” pilgrimage to Tiger Woods’ domain following Thursday’s 3-over 73 finish. Despite his appearance on the practice range following a competitive round, however, Lefty will make an early exit from the 2012 British Open after a second-round 78.

The lasting image of Mickelson’s Open Championship will be of him on his knees searching for his ball in the deep rough on the eighth hole on Thursday, but Friday’s ugly three-putt for a double bogey six on No. 13 pretty much summed up his short week.

Former major winner and young golf superstar Rory McIlroy has finished his second round of the 2012 British Open, and things are not looking good for the Northern Irish lad. After a solid 67 in his first round -- which put him in serious contention for the tournament -- McIlroy stumbled to an abysmal 5-over-par 75 in Round 2.

McIlory is in serious jeopardy of missing the cut in his second straight major championship should his competitors continue to fire low scores on another wet and forgiving Royal Lytham & St. Annes golf course on Friday. The current cut line is slated at 1-over par, which McIlroy would miss by a single shot.

With Brandt Snedeker on an absolute tear in his second round at Royal Lytham, the oddsmakers have upped his chances of winning the British Open. At 6-under par through 13 holes on Friday, the American who started the day two shots back of Adam Scott and is now 10-under has moved up to 6-1 odds to lift the Claret Jug on Sunday, according to Ladbrokes.

While Tiger Woods -- who ended his first round at 3-under and just three strokes back of 18-hole leader Scott -- remains the favorite at 5-1, Snedeker’s incredible start to his fourth Open Championship boosted his odds from 150-1 when the week began.

The second round of The Open Championship will once again begin in the middle of the night in the United States, with the first group set to tee off at 1:30 a.m. ET on Friday. The R&A opts to send the entire field off one tee, creating nearly 10 straight hours of tee times.

ESPN will provide nearly wall-to-wall coverage of one of the longest days on the golf calendar. The broadcast will come on the air at 4:30 a.m. ET, with live coverage running until 3 p.m. ET. A recap show replaying the day’s highlights will then air from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET, with another “best of” highlights show airing from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET.

The second round of The Open Championship gets underway early Friday morning with another full day of golf on the schedule. Unlike the U.S. Open, the R&A sends the entire field off the first tee, utilizing the significant daylight hours in at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. There will be nearly 10 full hours of tee times on Friday, with the field cut down by nearly half at the end of the day.

First-round leader Adam Scott will go off at 8:42 a.m. ET with Matt Kuchar. Scott played in the first half of the day on Thursday and took advantage of some benevolent weather conditions, shooting a 6-under 64. Tiger Woods finished the first round in the top 10 and enters Friday just three shots back. He’ll tee off an hour after Scott at 9:43 a.m. ET with Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose.