Sports: Woods keen on greens

Woods keen on greens

By BOB HARIG, Times Staff Writer

MIAMI -- There is little doubt Tiger Woods enjoys being back in Florida, where friendly putting surfaces are not leaving him frustrated on the greens.

Woods fretted about the greens in his PGA Tour appearances on the West Coast, where shaky putting kept him from winning and knocked him out of the Match Play Championship after one day.

"It's great to actually have the ball roll again," said Woods, whose 2-under 70 on Friday at the Genuity Championship put him at 137, four shots off the lead. "It is nice to see the ball go in the hole.

"If you are struggling with your putter on smooth greens, you can always figure it out because you know what the ball is doing. When you are putting on poa annua (the primary surface in California), it's kind of hard to figure out what is going on. Good putts don't go in, bad putts do go in. This week is nice. The ball is rolling true and the greens are picking up speed."

Woods entered ranked 144th in the tour's putting statistics for greens hit in regulation. He was averaging 30.67 putts per round, tied for 173rd.

NO REST: Clearwater's John Huston is in the midst of playing seven consecutive weeks, through the BellSouth Classic in Atlanta. He also plans to play several weeks in a row after the Masters.

"A lot of it has to do with the fact that I won't be in the Wednesday pro-am, so I can just go play the tournament," said Huston, who shot 73 for 143.

"I've played the courses enough to where I don't need to play a practice round. I go to the tournament on Wednesday and go home on Sunday night, so it's only like half a week. I think it's a big factor not having that six-hour round the day before the tournament, being able to take it easy."

Huston, a 14-year veteran of the PGA Tour, looked at the schedule this year and said it was an easy decision. "All the tournaments I like are in this stretch," he said. "I decided why not play all of those and skip the ones I hate in the summer."

DIVOTS: In his second PGA Tour event, Orlando's Ty Tryon, 17, again failed to make the cut. He shot 77 for 150, 6 over par. The cut is expected to come at 144, even par. ... Three players did not finish the second round because of darkness and will finish this morning. ... Several big names won't be around for the weekend: David Duval (145), Davis Love (147), Mark O'Meara (147). ... Valrico's Pete Jordan withdrew because of illness. ... Clearwater's Greg Kraft shot 75 and is at 141, and Palm Harbor's Bob Heintz missed the cut, shooting 77 after an opening-round 68. New Port Richey's Tim Petrovic shot 72 for 140.