When you're Tiger Woods, even six-under 66 leaves you moaning. Woods should have been in the low 60s in the second round of the Dubai Desert Classic and leading by several shots heading into the weekend.
Instead, two bogeys and a double bogey - and two balls into the water
- left him two shots behind Retief Goosen and Denmark's Anders Hansen. Hansen shot 63 and Goosen 67 for a 13-under, 131 total. "I turned a great round into a, a... round. Frustrating," said Woods.
"You know me, I hate dropping shots," he added.
Two others were tied with Woods at 11 under - Nick Dougherty (66) and Richard Green (69). Defending champion Ernie Els was three shots off the lead after a 66. By making his 70th straight cut on the European tour, he broke Bernhard Langer's record of 69.
This is Woods' third attempt to win the European tour's flagship event. He stumbled on the 72nd hole five years ago, knocking his approach into the water to lose by two shots to Thomas Bjorn. Two years ago, he finished five shots behind Florida neighbour Mark O'Meara.
Hansen, who has won only once on the European tour in an 11-year career, had nine birdies, no dropped shots and couldn't stop smiling.
"I was grinning and laughing on 14 and my caddie asked me why, and I wouldn't tell him," Hansen said. "I felt I couldn't go wrong and that feeling is so good. I wish I could have that every day. All of a sudden today, everything seemed to go in."
Goosen, who is playing his first tournament in six weeks, had other things on his mind. His three-year-old son, Leo, escaped injury on Thursday in a car accident in London.
"Luckily, everybody is still breathing," said Goosen, who turned 37 yesterday. "When both cars are a write off, then it's not a little bump."
- REUTERS
