Tiger Woods is making moves at the PGA Championship

On “moving day” at the PGA, Tiger has made a charge into contention at the season’s final major.

Tiger Woods is charging again at a major championship. Just three weeks after he held the solo lead on the back nine of The Open, Tiger is joining the birdie party at the PGA Championship.

Woods, who will play 28 holes on Saturday following a rain out on Friday afternoon, posted five birdies in his first nine holes of the third round. That matches the most birdies he’s ever carded in a nine-hole stretch at a major. He’s 8-under for the championship following a disastrous 3-over through his first two holes on Thursday morning. At one point on Saturday’s front nine, a birdie at the 8th pulled him within two shots of the lead, a remarkable run given how much the narrative was that he’s “out of gas” all week.

Tiger found something in the middle of that first round, when it looked like he’d eject from the final major of the season with a missed cut. Since then, he’s really figured out how to get around a course where you must be making constant birdies to contend. The ballstriking is perfect — he’s stuffing it pin-high and that’s been the hallmark of his career, and what has defined the success of this comeback season. A stripe off the tee at the par-3 6th led to a bonus birdie on one of the rare difficult holes at Bellerive.

A birdie at the 8th hole pulled him to T3 and just two shots back of the leaders at the time. This course is easy and soft as hell, but it’s still amazing to be able to watch Tiger make these charges on the weekends of major championships in the damn year 2018.

The front nine was not completely clean, with a bogey scattered in there, but an outward 31 is the kind of number he needs to keep pace.

The leaders ahead of him just aren’t going to come back — there is too much talent and the course is too benign for that to happen. Brooks Koepka, Kevin Kisner, Rickie Fowler, Gary Woodland — they’re all going to keep making birdies and one of them will probably get super hot. Throw in Justin Thomas, Adam Scott, and Jordan Spieth all around Tiger, and we have ourselves an amazing leaderboard on the weekend at maligned PGA venue.

Tiger has to keep the pedal down, something he’s struggled with on the back nine at Bellerive. Thanks in large part to that ugly start on Thursday morning, he’s played the back nine this week in 2-over, as opposed to a 10-under mark carving up the front nine. It’s awesome that he’s inside the top 5 and pushing the leaders, but he cannot give any shots back coming into the clubhouse if he wants much of a chance on Sunday.