Tiger Woods catches fire in second round of WGC-Mexico championship

MEXICO – Throughout his career, Tiger Woods has used a trait that has proved as essential to his success as any golf club he has put in his bag.

That it's an injury, a depression, a deficit and now his two children, Woods rarely loses control of his fate or feels powerless to because of one principle that it follows: stay patient.

He had four knee surgeries and four back surgeries, the most recent of which was a spinal fusion operation.

This week he had to adjust to 7,800 feet above sea level and quickly get acquainted with the Chapultepec Golf Club, a course he saw for the first time on Tuesday.

Then, after a draw equal to 71 in the first round of Thursday's World Golf Championship – Mexico which left him eight shots behind the leader, Woods did not blink. As he said, there was a lot of golf to play.

Once again, his patience is bearing fruit. Woods stormed the standings on Friday with a score of 5 under par 66. He will start the third round with six laps behind Dustin Johnson, who scored a late eleven after the round of 64-67.

In a round scored only by a three-ball rolling for bogey on the 17th, Woods got acquainted with the golf course, was more comfortable in the void, felt better to hit every shot in his bag.

It took a little while.

"That's not my natural strength, that's for sure," Woods said, showing patience. "My dad was a very, very patient man and I learned by just being around him.As I matured throughout the game, I'm a little more patient, especially since I was I have children, that will test his patience. "

At the start of Friday's second round, Woods lost 10 points behind Rory McIlroy and 9 on Johnson, two players with tremendous firepower and a winning pedigree. But Woods was not about to press.

"Oh, no, no, no, let's be patient with this golf course because, yes, you can shoot the weird 64's, 65's, 63's around this golf, but you can also shoot something in the 70s very quickly," said Woods. "It does not take much, it just takes some bad records here and there, banging in those trees and I can not get out, put myself in the wrong place."

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Woods found few bad spots in the second round, largely because he's taking a more cautious approach to attacking this tree-lined course. While others fire the pilot on almost every tee shot, Woods dissects the course precisely, using long irons and his 3 woods and 5 wood more often.

He will continue to do it on weekends.

"Keep walking," Woods said. "I'm just trying to keep the ball in front of me and then make some putts."

It works patiently until now.