If Tiger isn't the same old Tiger from the past, he's making a darn good imitation of it. His 4-under-par 68 yesterday at the Hero World Challenge easily could have been at least two strokes better if not for a pair of unfortunate lies that prevented him from deadlocking for second behind Charley Hoffman's 12 under.

    As it is, Tiger is 7 under, five behind Hoffman, and in a  tie for fifth. 

    The first incident came after he shot a 5-under-par 31 on the front, looking like he had never missed a step in the past four years. At the time, it put him at 9 under and on top of the leaderboard.

    However, on the back, after hitting an iron about 20 feet from the hole, Tiger had an extremely fast downhill putt, and even though he just babied it, found himself 10 feet past the flag. He missed the putt coming back for his first bogey of the day.

     The other incident came on No. 18, where he hit a drive about 20 feet off the fairway to the right and it landed on a dirt path that spectators use to maneuver up and down the hole. The myriad of footprints in the area gave him a lie so bad all he could do was blast it up the fairway 100 yards or so, leading to a second bogey.

    So Tiger heads into the weekend five behind, and it would have been closer if Hoffman hadn't put on an exhibition and birdied the last five holes. 

    Tiger is on a roll. Nothing he does for the next 36 holes should surprise us. 

    

 

 

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