Tiger Woods roars with phenomenal Round 2

NEW PROVIDENCE ISLAND, Bahamas — You believing yet?

Tiger Woods followed up a decent enough return performance on Thursday at the Hero World Challenge with an outstanding one on Friday, throwing another layer of beach sand on the doubts about his return from a long layoff. Yes, yes, the usual caveats apply: easy course, small field, benign conditions … but still, shooting 7-under 65 on the day is quite an achievement for a guy on the cusp of retirement this time last year.

Thursday’s round was all about sizing up the course, and Friday’s round was all about picking it apart. Woods opened the front nine Friday with the exact same score, 33, but this was far different than Thursday’s start-hot, collapse-late run. Woods birdied the first, sixth, and ninth holes, his drives long, his approaches accurate, his putts true.

The true test of a golfer, though, is how well they respond when the narrative turns, when the shots and lies turn ugly. On Thursday, Woods withered at the ends of both halves of his round, bogeying the ninth and then double-bogeying 16 and 18. This time around, Woods’ first trouble came at the long par-3 8th, where he drifted wide left into the scrub and sand that rings the green. He appeared to have almost no shot, but executed a flawless chip, scooping the ball out of the sand just enough to let it drift down in the direction of the hole for an eventual par.

After the turn, Woods set about dismantling the course. He carded four birdies in five holes, clawing his way up the leaderboard and at one point holding the mark for low round on the day. That run nearly came to a crashing halt on 16, when Woods ended up deep within one of the sawgrass-laden bushes that line Albany’s waste area. Woods could only chunk the ball out, setting up what would be a long, curling putt that he drained for par … followed by a fist-pump that brought back memories of the old days.

[Related: How the 2016 Ryder Cup lit a fire under Tiger Woods]

Woods is six shots off the lead shared by Dustin Johnson and Hideki Matsuyama, which is three better than when he started the day.

Granted, aside from the names atop the leaderboard the Hero World Challenge is about as far as you can get from a major, but it’s still worth noting that this is usually the point at which Woods starts to gag in big-time tournaments. He hasn’t won a major since that classic U.S. Open in 2008 at Torrey Pines, and he missed the cut in three of four in 2015.

But Woods has made it this far without incident. The baby steps are turning to full strides forward.

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports and the author of EARNHARDT NATION, on sale now at Amazon or wherever books are sold. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.