Tiger Woods Chasing Bryson DeChambeau, Henrik Stenson at Bay Hill

Tiger Woods is still human, after all. The eight-time champ lost ground Friday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, but he still has his sights set on leaders Bryson DeChambeau and Henrik Stenson.

Tiger Woods lost ground to the field in round two, posting two bogeys on the front and two birdies on the back.  Meanwhile the competition sharpened its skills and took aim, adding many birdies to their scorecards while Woods did not.

“Today was just a bad day,” he said to media after the round. “I didn’t really feel all that comfortable with a lot of my motion today. It wasn’t sharp, it wasn’t crisp, and I think it was contagious in the whole group. We all mishit a lot of golf shots.”

Woods only took care business on half of the par fives.

He did make a miracle par save at the 15^th, after his second shot buried under the face of a greenside bunker.

"“The hard part, besides it being buried, is that it was so far you up against the lip that I was afraid that my shaft might hit the lip before my club head could enter the sand,” he explained. “I took a pretty big swing at it to make sure. Normally I wouldn’t have taken that big a swing from that short of distance, but I was just afraid that if my shaft hit that I might just leave it right there in that same spot.”"

On the 16^th, there was a vintage gouge out of the fairway from 188 yards in the right rough which landed just beyond the fringe of the green on the par five.  If his back can withstand that, he’s healed. Most of us would have pulled all our muscles from shoulders to hamstrings and been carried off the course after that kind of thrash.

“The fact that Joey asked me, do you want any layup numbers, pretty much said it all right there,” Woods noted about the lie. “I said, no, what is it flag. And he said 92.”

Woods said he first pulled out a 6-iron.

"“Didn’t like the 6 because if it doesn’t come out I’m wet,” he added. “So, I took the 5, opened it up, and hit it pretty much as hard as I possibly could. And I held the face open. It worked out, I can’t believe it landed that soft. I was just trying to get the ball in the bunker, over the bunker, up to the right of the green, chip back, anything like that. I wasn’t going to mess with anything left of that flag. It came out perfectly.”"

During the round, Woods hit some pushes and pulls and had some unlucky bounces, like at the par 5, 6^th, or the par 4, 10^th, where his drives rolled into fairway bunkers.  He was in the rough often, but that is not unusual for him.

He only hit 57.69 percent of fairways, seven out of 12.  His longest drive was 323 yards on the 12^th.  His longest drive was 323 yards on the 12^th.

Woods followers should not give up, however.  Many a tournament has been won by someone who barely made the cut and vaulted to the top.

Woods’ challenge over the next two days is to catch Henrik Stenson and Bryson DeChambeau, both at 11-under.

Stenson held on to the top spot after a second round 69 to go with his first round 64.  He had all pars except for the 6^th, 7^th and 8^th holes where he had a birdie barrage.

“The important part for me was 16, 17, 18,” he said talking about the back nine, his first nine holes. “I scrambled for par all those three holes after hitting some not so good golf shots. I kept patient and when I got on a string, I made three in a row on 5, 6, 7 coming home.”

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Bryson DeChambeau shot a 66 with an eagle on the 16^th

"“It was fantastic,” he said about his score on the par 5. “Just striped a drive down 16. Had a nice little 8-iron in, and just hit a nice little butter cut in there against the wind, held it against the wind. I thought it was going a little too much, but stayed up there and went to seven feet and I was able to knock it in.”"

DeChambeau won last year’s John Deere Classic which was his first full season on the PGA Tour. He’s not lacking in confidence.

"“I think every week I’m good enough to win or play my best,” he said after a second round 66. “It’s just sometimes a kick here, a break here and that’s just what happens. You don’t get always get a sky ship rocketed up to the top of the leaderboard like I have, and, unfortunately, that’s the way it goes sometimes, but this week it’s going the right way.”"

Woods has two days to make up lost ground, and it will take some birdies to get the job done.

"“I’m seven back right now,” he noted. “There’s a lot of guys between myself and the lead, and if it gets warm like it’s supposed to get on the weekend, then we’re going to make some birdies. The golf course is going to be very short. The only thing that’s going to maybe be a deterrent is I don’t think they’re going to put any water on these things (the greens).”"

Next: Fantasy Golf - Arnold Palmer Invitational

What he didn’t say, though, was that he still thinks he has good chance, and so does everybody else. And that’s the Tiger we’ve been waiting for these past few years.