By Brian Wacker, PGATOUR.COM

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — For all of Tiger Woods’ dominance, TPC Sawgrass has mostly been a riddle in his career.

Woods won here in 2001, was second a year earlier and in the final pairing in 2009 before finishing eighth, but for the most part he’s struggled with just one top-10 finish in the last decade.

Saturday is typically moving day on the PGA TOUR, but on a breezy afternoon Woods again found himself stuck in neutral at THE PLAYERS Championship, shooting an even-par 72 to sit at 2 under with one round to play.

“I played well today and didn’t get anything out of that round,” said Woods, who hit 15 greens in regulation. “It was probably the most solid I’ve hit the golf ball all year actually. Even though I hit a couple off-line, they were just hit dead-flush. I just got nothing out of the round.”

Especially on the greens, where Woods took 33 putts. He missed three putts inside 10 feet, including one from just 3 feet for bogey on the seventh hole, and made only one outside that range on a windswept day at TPC Sawgrass.

Barring something spectacular on Sunday, it looks like Woods will leave here without the Waterford Crystal trophy for an eleventh straight year.

“It’s about ball-striking,” Woods said about TPC Sawgrass. “You can’t fake it around here. It’s amazing how easy the golf course seems if you’re hitting it well. You’ve got 15-footers all day.”

Woods didn’t have many of those. Eleven times, his approach shots landed outside 25 feet.

“If you look at it as a whole, everyone who has played here, they have never really been that consistent here,” he said.

That includes Woods.

Only three times in his last 16 rounds at TPC Sawgrass has he broken 70.

”There’s so much danger out there,” Woods said. “This golf course is set up today where you can go out there and shoot a 65 out there, but then again you can also go shoot something in the 80s pretty easily, too.”

By Brian Wacker, PGATOUR.COM

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — For a while, it looked like Tiger Woods would have another first in his career: Missing the cut in consecutive starts.

That’s when Woods flashed some of his old brilliance, making four straight birdies in the middle of his round en route to a 68 Friday that leaves him six shots off the lead heading into the weekend at THE PLAYERS Championship.

By his own admission, Woods’ round could have been a shot or two better. But he was pleased with all facets of his game, and he had reason to be.

Woods hit 10 of 14 fairways and 14 greens in regulation on his way to six birdies Friday. Much of his success in the second round could be attributed to his play on the par 5s.

A week ago at Quail Hollow, where he missed the cut for just the eighth time in his career, Woods played the par 5s in a mediocre 2 under with two birdies and six pars. At TPC Sawgrass, Woods birdied three of four on Friday, including the 11th, where he had a look at eagle from just over 20 feet but missed.

“I had to play them better than I have been playing par 5s, period,” Woods said.

Woods also putted the ball well, going 18-for-18 on putts inside 10 feet. He struck his irons significantly better than he did in the opening round, too, when he had just four approaches that landed 20 feet or closer. Friday, he had 10.

“I was just very consistent,” Woods said. “Nothing spectacular, just real solid golf.”

The first two rounds here were certainly an improvement from his last two trips to TPC Sawgrass.

Last year, Woods pulled out of the tournament with an Achilles injury after just nine holes, saying at the time he never should have tried to play. In 2010, he withdrew in the middle of the final round because of a bulging disc in his neck.

Woods’ round Friday marked just the third time in his last 15 trips to TPC Sawgrass that he recorded a sub-70 score. He also has just one top 10 here since his lone PLAYERS victory in 2001.

“It’s one of those things where you just have to hit the ball well at the right time.,” Woods said of the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. “You just have to hit the ball well all week. I think I’ve done that, what, two times here, and the rest of the time, it hasn’t been quite spot-on.”

Perhaps the best example of Woods’ discomfort with the course came on the par-4 14th hole, where he backed off his tee shot twice because he had trouble committing to his line.

“Sometimes it does [suit my eye], sometimes it doesn’t,” he said.

Woods drove it in the rough and bogeyed the hole, though it was one of only two blemishes on his scorecard.

Perhaps playing with Rickie Fowler helped, too.

Woods and Fowler both live in Jupiter, Fla., and play together regularly at The Medalist. Fowler thought Woods looked less mechanical and more free-flowing in his swing, much the way he has at their home club.

“It was fun to see him kind of get things going, and it looked like he freed up a little bit and started playing some golf,” Fowler said. “He’s hitting a lot of good shots and hitting a lot of good putts.”