What Tiger Woods Faces This Afternoon

Tiger Woods begins his second round a full 12 shots out of the lead of 2002 US Amateur Champion Ricky Barnes.  He does so knowing that he will likely only get to play until 2pm ET - at the maximum.  With storms rolling in and the forecast calling for them to be as drenching as Thursday, Woods has a limited window to take on the weakened Bethpage Black that Barnes, Mike Weir, and Lucas Glover have torn to pieces.

With that kind of window, Woods will have approximately three hours of decent golfing time today barring some kind of miracle miss.  He can likely get through 12 or 13 holes in that time span.  Woods must be thinking 62 today.  Even with that score, he would stil be four out of the lead.

The good news for him is that he has two other rounds past this one to apply additional pressure.  62 isn't needed - but it is a number that he can try to post. 

There is a 64 out there on the course as it is.  Mike Weir proved that. 

There is a 30 for nine holes out there.  Kevin Sutherland did that yesterday in one of the strangest US Open rounds ever posted: 41-30 for 71.

The scoring opportunities are there.  Woods will have to convert while he still can on this version of Bethpage.  The clock is ticking.

UPDATE: Here's a little video of the scene around Tiger, El Pato, and & Paddy.