Tiger Woods climbing Masters leaderboard

Tiger Woods got off to a bit of a slow start at the Masters on Thursday, but he’s improved as the tournament has gone on. That trend has continued during the start of his round on Friday, where he opened with a 2-under 34 on the first nine and is currently 2-under for the tournament, tied for 12th.

Woods’ opening nine on Thursday was very up-and-down, with solid shots being bookended by costly mistakes. He’s done well to eliminate many of those mistakes in the second round and carded just a single bogey on the front nine. That’s down from three bogeys on his opening nine during the first round. The better day started from the beginning when Woods followed an excellent tee shot with a better approach. He made the opening birdie putt to get back to even overall. It was a stark contrast from Thursday when he missed the fairway off the tee then three-putted for a bogey.

Even when he has found some trouble, he’s done well to recover. Woods’ tee shot on No. 11 found the trees, but he was still able to hit the green with his second shot on the green and sunk the birdie putt to move to 2-under overall.

Heading into the tournament, many didn’t believe Woods would make the cut, yet alone find himself on the upper-third of the leaderboard. Whatever work he did on his short game during his time away from playing competitively has paid off tremendously. While there have been a few hiccups along the way, Woods’ short game is markedly improved and better scores are the result.

Woods has improved each nine holes, opening with a front nine 37 on Thursday before shooting a 36 on the back nine and then a 34 on the front nine today. He’s currently one of 25 players under par and just two strokes out of a tie for sixth place. Contending still appears out of reach as Jordan Spieth continues to run away from the field.