Tiger Woods shoots another 70 at Torrey Pines

Well, that got a little nerve-wracking. Tiger Woods danced along the edge of the cut line on Friday at the Farmers Insurance Open, but managed to recover and cruise into the weekend with a second straight 70. He’s now -4 on the tournament.

Playing at the easier North Course at Torrey Pines after carding a -2 at the South Course on Thursday, Woods attacked the course in his opening holes, getting to as low as -4 by his eighth hole. But a plugged lie at the edge of a greenside bunker on the 18th, Woods’ ninth on the day, spelled disaster; he could only pop the ball out, then chipped and slid the 10-foot bogey putt past the hole.

So at the turn, he stood one stroke above the projected cut line of -3, and it started looking like we might be having one of those “can Woods hold it together?” conversations again. But this isn’t the Woods of recent years; he managed to hold it together before carding a remarkable couple of birdies on the third and fourth holes.

Woods closed out the day with a run of pars that kept him comfortably inside the cut line. He’s highly unlikely to win; he was nine strokes behind leader Justin Rose when he wrapped up. We’re in a new Tiger Woods era now, one where he’s pretty much the same as everybody else … a decent round one day, a less-decent round the next. But he’s at least in the mix again, and that’s something we haven’t been able to say for quite some time.

The Farmers Insurance Open will continue on the tougher South Course on the weekend. The leaderboard includes big guns like Rose, Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth, and should make for some fine cold-weather viewing.