PALM HARBOR, Fla. – One lesson Jack Nicklaus imparted on Tiger Woods a decade ago in South Africa was to always be part of the conversation.

They were talking that day about rivalries.

The problem now for Woods is it’s hard to have any conversation about him without mentioning his health. The biggest rival for Woods at age 38 might be a body that by his own account appears to be breaking down.

Woods was a big part of the conversation in back-to-back weeks on the Florida swing, and it had little to do with this golf.

He withdrew from the Honda Classic after 13 holes in the final round with lower back pain and what he said were spasms. He showed up three days later at Doral to walk a practice round on the new Blue Monster with wedges and a putter. He shot 73 in the wind on Friday (a very good score), and he shot 66 on Saturday (a great score) to get within three shots of the lead. And then his back flared up and he had the worst Sunday score (78) of his professional career.

His year is starting to sound like one big soap opera.

Was he working out too much in the off-season? Was he playing too little? Should he have played Doral? Will he be at Bay Hill next week? Just how bad is his back? Is rest and treatment enough? What kind of shape will he be in when he gets to Augusta National?

And the question that has yet to be asked – should he even play the Masters?

No other player from his generation has spoken more to the media than Woods.

Few have given up so little.

Part of that – most of that – is his desire to keep what he considers private matters just that. And that includes his health.

Consider a sampling of Woods’ injuries in recent years.

• At The Barclays in 2012, he said he felt a twinge in his lower back the morning of the second round and showed great discomfort around Bethpage Black. “Must have slept funny on it. Soft beds at the hotel,” he said.
• The next year at the same tournament, he only played only nine holes of the pro-am at Liberty National, and then chipped and putted on the back nine. “My neck and back are a little stiff … after a soft bed,” he said. “And just one of those things, sleeping in hotels and I didn’t want to push it.”

By the end of the week, he dropped to his knees after one shot on the back nine from what he said were back spasms. Woods said it was unrelated to the tightness he felt in his back two weeks earlier in the final round of the PGA Championship. He showed up at Boston the next week, thankful for the Friday start of the Deutsche Bank Championship.

• He played with a left elbow injury in the U.S. Open last summer at Merion. He said he injured it “playing golf” at The Players Championship during “one of the rounds,” and that he would still play even if were not the U.S. Open. But he wound up missing the AT&T National two weeks later to rest up for the British Open.
• He stopped after his tee shot on the 12th hole of the final round at Doral in 2012 with what he said was tightness in his left Achilles’ tendon. “In the past, I may have tried to continue to play. But this time, I decided to do what I thought was necessary,” he said. Woods won his next tournament two weeks later at Bay Hill.

It’s painfully clear (no pun intended) that Woods does not want to divulge details when talking about injuries.

Asked Sunday at Doral if it could be something more than back spasms, Woods replied: “Well, it is back spasms, so we’ve done all the protocols and it’s just a matter of keeping everything aligned so I don’t go into that.” That was followed by a simple question: Have you had an MRI?

“As I’ve said, we’ve done all the protocols,” he replied.

At times, it can be hard to ignore one part of Hank Haney’s book, “The Big Miss,” when talking about Woods’ fascination with injuries. Haney, his coach for six years, said Woods could have worsened the condition of his knee with heavy workouts and Navy SEAL activities.

“But Tiger preferred that people see his injuries related to his sport, so that he could wear them as an athletic badge of honour,” Haney wrote. “To him, injuries were a way of being accepted into the fraternity of superstars who played more physical sports than golf. For example, a couple of times when I knew he’d just gotten off the phone with Derek Jeter, I’d asked what they had talked about. Both times Tiger said the conversation was about injuries they were each dealing with.”

Tiger said plenty last Wednesday when he said of his most recent injury, “A bad back is no joke.”

It’s easy to connect dots with scores and injuries, especially when the bad back on the last two Sundays followed rounds of 65 and 66. But that would be ignoring the 2008 U.S. Open he won in 91 holes on a left leg so badly damaged that it required season-ending surgery two days later.

Even with eight wins over the last two years, his future remains muddled by recurring injuries. How bad are they? Does he need to take more time off? Can he afford to take more time off? How much longer will be stuck on 14 majors? Will he ever break the record 18 majors won by Nicklaus?

Woods is not playing this week. Consider it a commercial break.

SYDNEY – The ex-caddie of Tiger Woods says his one regret was his television interview on the 18th green after Adam Scott won at Firestone.

Scott won the Bridgestone Invitational in 2011, and Steve Williams got most of the attention for an interview right after the tournament ended. Williams had spent 12 years with Woods until getting fired a month earlier and told David Feherty of CBS Sports, “I’ve caddied for 33 years – 145 wins now – and that’s the best win I’ve ever had.”

In an interview with Fox Sports Australia this week, Williams said it was a mistake.

“Firstly, when you’re a caddie that never happens,” Williams said. “Of course, I was unbelievably excited. I’d been through a pretty emotional period, and a pretty rough period the preceding 12 or so months with the fallout from Tiger. I never expected someone to put a microphone in your face when you walk off the 18th green as a caddie. That’s never, ever happened before, and obviously I was pretty emotional at the time.

“Some things you regret,” Williams said. “That would be one of them.”

The comments were stunning by numbers alone. Williams had been on Woods’ bag for 72 wins worldwide, including 13 majors and 16 World Golf Championships. And it showed the deep resentment he felt toward Woods.

That interview did even more damage later in the year.

It was so memorable that the European Tour caddies jokingly gave Williams the “Celebration of the Year” award during an annual roast for caddies in Shanghai. Upon accepting the award, Williams used a racial slur about Woods in talking about the interview.

That led to headlines over the next two days, and Williams apologized to Woods when he saw him the following week in Australia.

DORAL, Fla. – The road to the Masters is just getting started, and already two players have combined to win five times on the PGA Tour.

They’re not Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

How many would have guessed Jimmy Walker (three wins) and Patrick Reed (two wins) when the wraparound season began in October?

Reed might have had his hand up.

In a moment of bravado on national television after he went wire to wire (with ties) to win the Cadillac Championship, the 23-year-old Reed said, “I’m one of the top five players in the world. I feel like I’ve proven myself.” He has won twice this season, three times dating to August.

Reed and Walker are the latest newcomers to winning on the strongest tour in golf. Harris English won in Mexico last November for his second PGA Tour title in six months. Jordan Spieth won in July, and he started this year by giving himself three chances to win.

It’s just another example that winning is getting hard, even for those who are used to winning a lot.

Each season seems to bring a new crop of younger players who have a lot of game and no fear. Russell Henley won the Sony Open in his debut as a PGA Tour member. Just over a year later, he overcame a two-shot lead playing with Rory McIlroy in the final group at the Honda Classic and won a four-hole playoff.

Scott Stallings won at Torrey Pines for his third PGA Tour win. He’s 28.

The last three winners of the World Golf Championships – Dustin Johnson, Jason Day and Reed – are all in their 20s. Ten of the 17 winners this season are in their 20s. That includes 26-year-old Chesson Hadley, who won the Puerto Rico Open on Sunday about the time Reed was beating the strongest field so far this year at Doral.

“Look at Russell Henley – he’s won twice,” Reed said. “Harris English has won twice, Jordan Spieth won once. Myself, I’ve won three times. It’s just one of those things that we’ve worked very hard – all of us – to get where we are. And it’s definitely shown what we are doing is working. To see the young guys coming out and playing and putting it to the veterans is always nice.”

Walker turned 35 in January, so it’s hard to consider him one of the younger players. Then again, injuries slowed the start of his career. And once he finally won at the Frys.com Open to kick off the new wraparound season, he has made it a habit. Over the weekend, Walker talked about new opportunities that have come his way following his three wins. He’s not interested in anything but playing good golf.

Now that he has tasted winning, his appetite is only growing.

Walker leads the FedEx Cup and the Ryder Cup standings. Johnson is No. 2 on both lists, while Reed is at No. 3 in the FedEx and No. 4 in the Ryder Cup. Five of the top nine players in the Ryder Cup standings were not on the last U.S. team at Muirfield Village for the Presidents Cup.

Remember, it’s still only March. The first of four majors has yet to be played. Reed has never even played in a major.

He rubbed a few people the wrong way when he declared himself among the top five in the world (he’s actually No. 20). It showed what he thought about his game and that he’s not afraid to say it.

So if he’s top five, who are the other four?

“Tiger Woods, of course,” Reed said.

And that was as far as he got before he smiled and said, “You know, good question. I said top 5. I didn’t know where I was going to be in the top 5.”

He then went on to mention Masters champion Adam Scott (No. 2 in the world) and Mickelson (No. 5). He mentioned how impressed he was with Graeme McDowell, and having played Saturday with Johnson, he acknowledged how good he could be when he gets on a roll. And the list stopped there, right when it was starting to grow.

The ranking (determined over two years) has Henrik Stenson at No. 3, Day at No. 4, McIlroy at No. 6.

It was clear that “top five” was more figure of speech than an actual number. Anyone’s list of “top five” is likely to include as many as 10 players these days.

Years ago, Colin Montgomerie jokingly said that it was hard to win majors because Woods usually won two of them, Mickelson, Vijay Singh or Ernie Els won another and that left only one for everybody else each year.

Twenty-one players have won the last 24 majors. That would seem to make it even harder.

It’s getting that way for regular PGA Tour events, too.

RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico – Chesson Hadley dreamed about a day like this as a child – other than the tossing and turning in bed and queasy stomach.

“I was so nervous,” Hadley said Sunday after winning the Puerto Rico Open for his first PGA Tour victory. “I did not eat well last night. I did not eat well this morning.”

He held off Danny Lee by two strokes in wind gusting to 25 mph at Trump International.

“I wasn’t vomiting or anything, but there were a couple of times where I felt nauseous out on the course,” Hadley said. “I went to bed. I watched maybe three minutes of the Duke-Carolina game. I fell right asleep and I woke up ready to go about 5:30, 6, and I never really went back to sleep, just kind of tossed and turned. ”

Making his 13th PGA Tour start, the 26-year-old Hadley birdied the final two holes for a 5-under 67. He’s the first rookie winner since Jordan Spieth in July in the John Deere Classic.

“It’s incredible. It’s a dream come true,” Hadley said. “This is what you dream of as a 6-year-old out in the bunker, hitting bunker shots on the range.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet. It’ll be nice to sleep on it and wake up in the morning knowing I’m a PGA Tour champion and nobody can ever take that away from me.”

Hadley finished at 21-under 267 and earned $630,000, a two-year tour exemption and spots in The Players Championship, PGA Championship and Tournament of Champions. He will move into the mid-60s in the world ranking, giving him a chance to get into the Masters if he can crack the top 50 at the end of the Texas Open.

“It opens up a lot of doors,” Hadley said. “It guarantees me a major. I’ve never played in a major before.”

He birdied three of the first five holes, chipping in on the par-5 fifth.

“It’s all about the start and I got off to a great start,” Hadley said. “Probably the shot that won me the tournament was the chip in on 5. I mean I was dead over there and I hit the nastiest little nipper over there, and it snuck in the left door.”

Lee birdied three of the last four holes for a 68. The South Korean-born New Zealander won the 2008 U.S. Amateur and also has European and Web.com victories.

“I really felt like I did my best. I gave it my best, but Chesson was just playing rock solid,” Lee said. “He made a couple of good up-and-downs from bad tee shots. When he plays like that, it’s just really hard to catch. He just didn’t make any silly mistakes at all.”

Hadley won twice last year on the Web.com Tour, taking the Rex Hospital Open in his hometown of Raleigh, N.C., and the season-ending Web.com Tour Championship. In Raleigh, the former Georgia Tech player began the final round five strokes behind Lee and closed with a 64 for a two-stroke victory.

“The two wins last year, that helps a lot because you’re there, you’ve learned how to win, you learn how not to choke, and there’s a lot going on,” Hadley said.

Ben Martin shot a 66 to finish third at 17 under.

“I’m very happy with the way I played today,” Martin said. “Just kind of get back out there, get the juices flowing a little bit. Really, the first time that I’ve had that this year.”

David Toms was another stroke back along with Carl Pettersson, Jason Gore, Wes Roach and Richard H. Lee. Roach and Lee shot 67, Toms and Pettersson 69, and Gore 70.

Brantford, Ont.’s David Hearn finished tied for 24th at 10-under. Ottawa’s Brad Fritsch tied for 29th at 9-under. Calgary’s Stephen Ames tied for 54th at 5-under par.

DORAL, Fla. – Patrick Reed felt he belongs among the best in the world. He beat them all Sunday in the Cadillac Championship.

Dressed in a red shirt that he always wears in the final round – with Tiger Woods in the group ahead of him – Reed made back-to-back birdies early on the front nine to build a big lead and showed off a great short game when the pressure was building on the new Blue Monster at Doral.

Equipped with a two-shot lead, the 23-year-old Texan wisely played the final hole conservatively. He two-putted for bogey and closed with an even-par 72 for a one-shot victory over Bubba Watson and Jamie Donaldson of Wales.

Reed became the youngest winner of a World Golf Championship, his third win in his last 14 tournaments.

Woods, only three shots behind going into the final round in his best chance this year to win a tournament, said his back flared up after an awkward shot out of the bunker on the sixth hole. He failed to make a birdie in the final round for the first time in his PGA Tour career, and his 78 was his worst Sunday score ever.

Reed is expected to go to No. 20 in the world ranking. In his own ranking, he feels he belongs in the top five.

He cited an amateur career that includes going 6-0 in matches to lead Augusta State to two NCAA titles, followed by three PGA Tour wins in seven months.

“I don’t see a lot of guys that have done that besides Tiger Woods and the legends of the game,” Reed said. “I believe in myself, especially with how hard I’ve worked. I’m one of the top five players in the world. I feel like I’ve proven myself.”

He joined some exclusive company. Since 1990, only Woods, Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia had three PGA Tour wins before turning 24.

This was not an accident, either.

Reed has had a share of the lead going into the final round of all three of his victories – the Wyndham Championship last August, the Humana Challenge in January and a World Golf Championship at Doral that featured the strongest field so far this year.

His last two wins were wire-to-wire, including ties.

Watson, who won at Riviera three weeks ago, went bogey-free over the final 27 holes, a strong performance on the overhauled Trump National Doral. He closed with a 68, finishing with par after blasting through the palms, into the grandstand and back into the rough.

Donaldson wasn’t so fortunate. He hit into a foot on the 17th for his third birdie on the back nine to get within one shot of the lead. From the 18th fairway _ after watching Miguel Angel Jimenez go through the green and into the water – he blocked his approach away from the flag and into the back bunker. Donaldson blasted out to just inside 15 feet and missed the par putt. He closed with a 70.

Reed finished at 4-under 284, matching the highest winning score at Doral. Mark McCumber won at 284 in 1985.

Reed, Donaldson and Watson were the only players to finish under par.

Dustin Johnson, who lost momentum around the turn, made double bogey on the 18th hole for a 72 and tied for fourth with Richard Sterne (71).

Woods went into the final round with a chance to win for the first time all year.

It didn’t last very long.

He beaned and bloodied a spectator on the opening hole and missed a 10-foot birdie putt. He beaned another spectator on No. 3, kicking the ball back into the fairway, only he followed that with a shot into the water and made bogey. Woods made two more bogeys over the next three holes and was an afterthought. He said the pain intensified after his bunker shot on the sixth.

Woods had his left foot in the sand and his right foot flexed against the lip of the bunker.

“That’s what set it off and then it was done after that,” he said. “Just see if I could actually manage … keep the spasms at bay.”

The results are not very promising on his short road to the Masters. Woods has played only four tournaments, and only twice went 72 holes. He missed the 54-hole cut at Torrey Pines, tied for 41st in Dubai and withdrew after 13 holes in the final round of the Honda Classic last week.

He is scheduled to make only one more start – Bay Hill in two weeks – before Augusta National.

The other guy in the red shirt and black pants played like he knew what was doing with the lead. Reed left no doubt early that it would be his tournament to win.

His two-shot lead dwindled to one after a bogey from the bunker on the second hole, and that was as close as it got until it no longer mattered.

He knocked in a 25-foot birdie from the back of the green at No. 3, He holed an 18-foot birdie putt on the tough par-3 fourth. Jason Dufner, playing in the final group, went into the water on the fourth to begin his quick slide. Reed made par on the next nine holes, and only in the final hour was the outcome ever in doubt.

Reed saved par from the bunker on Nos. 11, 13 and 15. His only bogey came on a 3 1/2-foot putt he missed at No. 14.

Canada’s Graham DeLaet finished 34th after shooting a 2-over par 74.

RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico – Chesson Hadley took the third-round lead Saturday in the Puerto Rico Open, shooting a 5-under 67 in windy conditions at Trump International.

Making his 13th PGA Tour start, the 26-year-old Hadley had four birdies in an early five-hole stretch and also birdied the par-4 14th in wind gusting to 25 mph.

“It was frustrating, to be honest with you, even though I was playing well, just because I hit it so well today and I missed quite a few putts, a lot of putts the last 11 holes,” Hadley said. “But you know what, we’re right where we need to be. I’m leading and that’s great.

“I’s hard to be satisfied with how well I hit it, but we need to keep in perspective that we’re leading and we’re in a great spot for tomorrow.”

Hadley had a 16-under 200 total.

“I’m going to go at just about every flag,” Hadley said. “You got to stay aggressive out here. I’ve learned that. For me, if I kind of take the foot off the pedal a little bit, I’ll kind of lose focus and I won’t be as sharp as I would like to be, so I plan on being really aggressive.”

Danny Lee was a stroke back after a 66.

“It was another good day of golf,” Lee said. “I was hitting it really well at the beginning and putting is good. I think everything is going really nicely at the moment.”

Hadley won twice last year on the Web.com Tour, taking the Rex Hospital Open in his hometown of Raleigh, N.C., and the season-ending Web.com Tour Championship. In Raleigh, he began the final round five strokes behind Lee and rallied to beat the New Zealand player by two strokes with a 64.

“I was thinking about that a little bit,” Hadley said. “Danny and I are great friends and we’re going to have a blast. I think we’re playing twosomes tomorrow, so we’ll have a blast out there, and hopefully we can kind of duel it out. Obviously, I would love to come away with a victory.”

Jason Gore and Jonathan Byrd were tied for third at 14 under. Gore shot 66, and Byrd had a 67.

Gore pointed to a recent talk with former basketball star Charles Barkley for his strong play.

“I just met Charles that day, and he goes, `So what’s been wrong the last few years?'” Gorse said. “I said, `You know, I kind of just lost my love for the game.’ He goes, `Well, why?’ I said, `Man, I have a family.’ He said, `Man, I ain’t buying that.’ … He goes, `Why would you not want to provide your family a better life, and doing something you love.’ And it was one of those things, it wasn’t Nostradamus or anything like that. He didn’t break any barriers there, but it did kind of hit a hard string and made me stop to think why would I not want to be better for them and provide better, and lucky to get to do what I do.”

James Driscoll, the second-round leader after matching the tournament record with a 63, had a 75 to drop into a tie for 20th at 9 under.

On the Canadian front, Brad Fritsch leads is tied for 15th after a blazing 67. The Ottawa native is 10-under par and just 6-shots off the pace heading into the final round.

David Hearn of Brantford, Ont. is 20th, a single-stroke back of Fritsch at 9-under.

Stephen Ames of Calgary dropped two spots on the leaderboard after a  71. He’s in 57th spot at 3-under par.

DORAL, Fla. – Patrick Reed turned his game around in four holes Saturday and wound up with a 3-under 69 in much tamer conditions at Doral, giving him a two-shot lead at the Cadillac Championship going into a final round that will prominently feature Tiger Woods for the first time this year.

Reed rolled in a 40-foot eagle putt on No. 8, and started the back nine with consecutive birdies. He drove the green on the par-4 16th for a two-putt birdie and wound up with a two-shot lead over PGA champion Jason Dufner (68) and Hunter Mahan, who bogeyed his last hole for a 71.

Woods delivered the low round of the tournament and his best round of the year.

He made three birdie putts of about 15 feet or longer on the back nine, including a 35-footer down the slope on the par-5 15th, and had a 6-under 66. His goal was to get back to even par for the tournament and hope to be within five shots of the leader.

It turned out much better.

Woods was one of five players who were under par, and he goes into Sunday only three shots behind as he tries to win at Doral for the fifth time. Jamie Donaldson of Wales escaped from the palm trees right of the 18th and made par for a 71 to share fourth place with Woods.

“It was nice to get back in the tournament again,” Woods said.

Reed will be going for his third win in his last 14 starts dating to the Wyndham Championship in August. He was at 4-under 212, the highest score to lead after 54 holes at Doral since a three-way tie at 212 in 1985.

Asked what it would be like to see Woods in a red shirt ahead of him on Sunday, Reed didn’t seem bothered.

“That’s fine. I’ve seen Tiger a lot on the driving range. Never had the opportunity to play with him and I still haven’t been able to play with him,” he said. “Whenever he’s close to the lead, he’s a guy you have to watch out for. But at the same time, I have to go and just play my own game.”

Reed did that beautifully playing with Dustin Johnson, which he said is the reason he had his second 54-hole lead of the year. He earlier won the Humana Challenge.

The lack of big wind certainly helped with scoring and attitudes on Saturday. The average scores was 72.6, compared with 76.0 in the second round, allowing for plenty of movement on the leaderboard on a sunny afternoon in Miami.

“Now it’s playing more like a normal course,” Woods said.

A dozen players were within five shots of the lead going into Sunday.

Dustin Johnson failed to birdie three of the par 5s and chopped up the 14th hole, which featured one shot he hit left-handed. He birdied the last hole for a 73 that put him at even-par 144, along with Miguel Angel Jimenez (69) and Zach Johnson (71).

Jimmy Walker, already a three-time winner this season who is starting to feel like contending is a habit, had a 67 and was in the group five shots behind with Bubba Watson, Graeme McDowell and Matt Kuchar.

“The tournament will not be over until the last putt drops on 18,” Mahan said. “That always happens, but it seems like you just can’t coast in here. You can’t have a big enough lead going into 18 this week. So I don’t think anyone is going to be too bothered if someone gets out to a three- or four-shot lead, because there’s so much golf out there. And there’s so much that can happen – good and bad.”

And it did on Saturday.

Woods made his move early and late, pouring four birdies in eight holes to go out in 33. Looking confident with the putter, he made birdie putts of 15 feet on No. 11, 20 feet on the par-5 20th, and then followed his long birdie putt on the 15th with a bunker shot that narrowly cleared the clip and settled a few feet away for birdie on the 16th.

His only blunders came on par 3s – a three-putt bogey on No. 4 and taking two shots to get out of the bunker on No. 13.

“I held it together yesterday – a long day, tough day – and that gave me a chance today,” said Woods, who scratched out a 73 in the second round. “I figured, `Hey, I’m only six back. That’s definitely doable, especially with the conditions and how difficult this golf course is playing. If I just get back to even par for the tournament, I’ll be right there.’ And I did one better.”

Rory McIlroy did not. The two-time major champion was only one shot out of the lead when he went just long on the seventh hole with a pitching wedge and made bogey. He then hit into the water on the par-5 eighth with his second shot, and the par-5 10th with his tee shot. He made double bogey both times and only a chip-in birdie on the 18th salvaged his hopes. He had a 75 and was seven shots behind.

Much like Reed, Dufner did his damage in one stretch. It started with a shot that kissed off the pin on No. 5. That was the start of six birdies in eight holes, though he had to settle for six pars at the end.

Graham DeLaet (70) is 4-over par for the championship and is tied for 21st.

DORAL, Fla. – Ian Poulter criticized Hideki Matsuyama on Twitter and referred to him as an “idiot” for damaging the 13th green at Doral with his putter and not repairing it. Matsuyama apologized to him Saturday morning before they teed off together in the Cadillac Championship.

Matsuyama missed a 7-foot par putt in the second round Friday and slammed his putter into the green, leaving what one caddie described as a half-inch gash.

Poulter was in the group behind the 22-year-old from Japan. The damage was in the line of Charl Schwartzel’s 12-foot par putt, and a rules official was called out to repair the damage before Schwartzel putted. He missed and made bogey.

The incident escaped noticed until Poulter, with over 1.6 million followers, took to Twitter late Friday.

playing with Matsuyama tomo. He buried his putter in the 13th green 5 ft from the hole, Referee had to repair the crater. Because he didn’t.

— Ian Poulter (@IanJamesPoulter) March 8, 2014

Poulter followed with two more tweets:

Why should Matsuyama leave a crater in the green for others to putt over, or have to call a referee to repair the damage. Idiot.

— Ian Poulter (@IanJamesPoulter) March 8, 2014

Im no saint & first to say. But that was disgusting. I wouldn’t bury a putter in a green 5 ft from a hole & have players behind deal with it

— Ian Poulter (@IanJamesPoulter) March 8, 2014

Matsuyama, the No. 22 player in the world who last year became the first rookie to win the Japan Golf Tour money list, was already on the practice range when Poulter arrived. He immediately walked to the other end of the range with his interpreter, Bob Turner, and apologized.

Poulter shook his hand and said, “I make loads of mistakes.”

“If you’re going to do it, repair it,” he explained to Matsuyama, who nodded his head.

Poulter ended the brief exchange by saying, “No words today,” indicating that there was no need to bring it up again during their third round.

Turner said Matsuyama already apologized to Jason Dufner, who was in the group with Poulter, and would seek out Schwartzel.

“He wishes he could apologize to the field,” Turner said. “All he can do is promise not to do it again. No excuses.”

DORAL, Fla. -The new Doral in raging wind looked a lot like an old U.S. Open on Friday.

Matt Kuchar played out of the rough to tap-in range for birdie on the 18th hole for a 2-over 74 that allowed him to join an exclusive group at the Cadillac Championship – one of only four survivors to par.

The Blue Monster gobbled up just about everyone else.

Dustin Johnson bogeyed three of his last six holes for a 74. Patrick Reed made only two birdies in his round of 75. Hunter Mahan atoned for a triple bogey with a 4-iron into 5 feet for eagle on the eighth hole, giving him a 74. They joined Kuchar atop the leaderboard at 1-under 143.

“I felt stressed all day, because I knew every shot had `big penalty’ written all over it,” Mahan said. “It was a really tough day. There wasn’t an easy shot out there. One of those rounds where it could go south pretty fast, so you’ve got to grind it out and find a way to get a number up there and get to the weekend.”

Only three players broke par in the second round. No one shot in the 60s. The average score was a fraction under 76.

“I don’t think I’ve played in conditions this difficult in the U.S.,” Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland said after a 71 that left him one shot behind. “It’s an Open Championship day. It’s a real Friday afternoon at St. Andrews in 2010 before they called it. It was hard out there – really, really hard.”

Rory McIlroy (74), Francesco Molinari (75) and Jamie Donaldson of Wales (70) also were one behind at even-par 144.

Tiger Woods hit three balls in the water and scraped out a 73, thanks in part to a 90-foot birdie putt on the par-3 fourth hole.

Phil Mickelson made back-to-back double bogeys, and then laid on his back along the bank of the fourth tee during a long wait. He got up, hit into the water and made another double bogey. Lefty shot 75.

Both were still in the mix, only six shots behind.

“It’s a tough golf course as it is,” Reed said. “And with how hard the wind is blowing, it made it even tougher. Almost felt like we were playing at a major today.”

At times, it looked even worse.

Fist pumps were replaced by players stretching out their arm to take a penalty drop from the water – 113 balls in the water, which is everywhere on the course that Gil Hanse redesigned under the direction of new owner Donald Trump.

Trump described it as bold. It turned out to be brutal.

And just like a U.S. Open, there were plenty of complaints.

The greens were always going to be firm because the course was built in under a year. There was always going to be concern about the sharp edges of fairways and greens that sent balls down the bank and into the water. Throw in gusts that topped 30 mph, and any score was possible on any hole.

“The setup is horrendous,” Webb Simpson said after a 78 that included a bunker shot that went onto and over the seventh green and into the water. “Even if we had a 10 mph wind, it still would have been bad. I played terrible. I want to get that out there. But when you have conditions like this, and a setup like this, so much luck comes into play.”

Henrik Stenson prefaced his comments by saying, “How do you say something you might regret the rest of your life?”

So he didn’t.

Stenson, part of the Nos. 1-2-3 grouping from the world ranking, had a 76 and joined Woods at 5-over 149. Masters champion Adam Scott, the other member of that illustrious trio, had a 73 and was at 4-over 148. The group was a combined 14-over par for the tournament.

Stenson was walking off the 15th green Friday morning while finishing up the rain-delayed first round. Spotting a small group of reporters, he said, “Are you having fun watching?” And then as he walked away, he smiled and said, “Because it’s sure as hell not any fun to be playing.”

Johnson managed for the longest time. Even as everyone was succumbing to par, he was at 3 under with a birdie on No. 12. But he dropped a shot on the par-3 13th. His short iron into the 15th hit the green and rolled over the back and into the water. And on the 18th, his fairway bunker shot came out too strong and over the green, and he missed a 6-foot par putt that would have given him the outright lead.

The forecast is for less wind on the weekend, and surely a sigh of relief from the players.

And this World Golf Championship is wide open.

“We’ve all got a shot at it now,” Woods said. “No one is going anywhere.”

Woods, like so many other players, could have gone south. He was 7 over for the round after a wedge tumbled into the water on No. 3. But he made the long birdie on No. 4 and hit wedge to 3 feet for birdie on the next hole, and then managed to avoid bogeys the rest of the way.

McIlroy went out in 40, but he made three birdies on the back nine. A 74 was enough to move up the leaderboard on this day.

“It was a day where you obviously couldn’t win the golf tournament, but you could let it get away from you, and you could rack up a few big numbers and play yourself out of contention,” McIlroy said.

Luke Donald did just that with an 82. So did Victor Dubuisson, who had an 81.

Canada’s Graham DeLaet (72) is 6-over, but just 7-strokes off the pace heading into the weekend.

Here’s the full video recap from PGA TOUR Entertainment.

RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico – James Driscoll matched the Puerto Rico Open record with a 9-under 63 on Friday to take a one-stroke lead after the second round.

Playing in wind gusting to 20 mph after morning rain at Trump International, Driscoll had an eagle and seven birdies in his bogey-free round. He had a 12-under 132 total.

“I had the putter going pretty hot today,” Driscoll said. “I was fortunate. I hit a bunch of shots pretty close, too. I judged the wind. Luckily, I read the wind right a couple of times. The wind was pumping pretty good. It was blowing about 20 miles an hour, but there were a few times I had some crosswinds and just judged it perfectly and hit it in there to about a foot or so.”

Driscoll also shot a 63 in the 2011 tournament for a share of the record set by Derek Lamely in his 2010 victory and also matched by Chris Tidland in 2011 and Scott Brown last year in his victory.

“The first 63, I think I was 11 under with like three or four holes to go and made two bogeys coming in, and this one was just kind of, I just kept chipping away at it and birdied the last to get to 63,” Driscoll said. “So they were a little bit different, but both pretty special. Both holed a bunch of putts and just one of those days where you hit some iron shots close and make a mile of putts.”

PGA Tour rookie Chesson Hadley was second after a 65.

“I’ve kind of been struggling all year just with ball-striking, just finding the planet, honestly,” Hadley said. “And yesterday, I don’t know, I was just talking to my swing coach again, and we kind of just like, `Look, just go back to the basics.’ I’ve always struggled with staying tall through the ball, and I just started thinking about that yesterday before my round, and I hit it great on the range, and it really started to line up yesterday. I hit it great, and then I just pured it everywhere, all over the place today.”

Eric Axley was 10 under after a 66, and Jonathan Byrd, Wes Roach, Ben Martin and Danny Lee were another stroke back. Byrd and Roach shot 66, Martin 67, and Lee 68.

The three Canadians in the field qualified for weekend action. Brantford, Ont.’s David Hearn leads the Canuck charge. He was 6-under after a 68 Friday, leaving him in a tie for 20th.

Ottawa’s Brad Fritsch also shot a second-round 68. He’s 5-under which left him in a tie for 25th.

Stephen Ames (70-72) of Calgary was tied for 55th at 2-under.

DIVOTS: J.J. Henry was disqualified after the first round for failing to sign his scorecard. He shot 74. … Puerto Rico’s Rafael Campos made the cut with rounds of 74 and 69. He was in the tie for 68th at 1 under. … John Daly also was 1 under with rounds of 74 and 69.