Power five back as Tiger finds putting touch

Tiger Woods

Seamus Power is just five shots off the lead at halfway in PGA Tour's Quicken Loans National where Tiger Woods holed 122 feet of putts with his new mallet putter.

Woods made seven birdies in a five-under 65 to get to within four shots of leaders Beau Hossler, Brian Gay and Ryan Armour on five-under-par at TPC Potomac.

Hossler (66), Armour (65) and Gay (64) lead by a shot from Francesco Molinari (65) and Billy Horschel (68) on nine-under.

Power shot a 70 to remain in contention on four-under, following a birdie at the first with dropped shots at the fourth and ninth before he got back to level by knocking in a 20 footer at the 16th.

Woods made a significant move, chipping in at his ninth hole to go out in two-under before knocking in three more birdies on the back nine for his 65.

"I wasn't disappointed with the way I putted yesterday and this was a continuation of it," Woods said after making five footers for par on his last two holes. 

"I tried to clean up my ball‑striking a little bit and continue doing what I was doing on the greens yesterday.

“I hit a lot of good putts (yesterday), they just didn't go in. I started on my line with the right pace and today I did that and a lot of them fell.

“I haven't done in probably about four tournaments, they're going to start falling and today they fell.”

He added: “I'm not that far away from putting it together where I can win. Right now I'm only four back. I'm in a similar position to where I was at Valspar. The scores aren't going to be that low and it's going to be a tough weekend.

“It's going to be hot, it's going to be long grinds. It will be hotter than now, which is scary. It will be over 100 degrees and it will be a long weekend mentally and physically. I'm in a good position.”