Tiger takes aim at last PGA crown

ATLANTA – For thousands of fans crammed into every corner of East Lake, it looked as though Tiger Woods was closer than ever to capping off this remarkable comeback season by winning the final PGA Tour event.

Four straight one-putts on the back nine Friday in the Tour Championship – three for birdie, one for par – offset a double bogey and gave Woods a 2-under 68 and a share of the 36-hole lead for the first time in three years. Not since Doral in 2013 has he been atop the leaderboard after each of the first two rounds.

Woods sees it differently.

He’s the one coping with Bermuda rough deep enough to hide all but the top of a golf ball, with greens that are slick and firm and with a golf course that is the most demanding test players have seen this side of a major.

“We have a long way to go,’’ Woods said. “And this is not an easy golf course.’’

For so much of the second round, even as he struggled to keep the ball in play, Woods was making it look that way.

He appeared to be building separation against the 30-man field with that four-hole stretch on the back nine that he capped off with a 25-foot birdie putt on the peninsula green at the par-3 15th. But then a tee shot into the rough led to a plugged lie in a bunker and a shot he had to play away from the 16th green, leading to double bogey. A two-putt birdie on the final hole gave him a share of the lead with Justin Rose.

They were at 7-under 133.

Rose, in his debut at No. 1 in the world, played in front of Woods and could hear all about it with an enormous gallery. He birdied three of his last six holes to offset a bogey for a 67.