For much of the year, Tiger Woods has hit his full shots (other than wedges) quite well, but putted, by his standards, horribly. Just last week he trailed almost the entire field in putting prowess. Well, so far this week at the PGA Championship, he is more than making up for his season-long putting woes. Through 23 holes, he has just 27 putts. He’s NOT hitting the ball all that well, but his putting is uncannily, spookily good — so good that it would almost be frustrating to watch because it seems almost unfair — which means that he is right at the top of the leaderboard. It would be easy to begrudge him his sell-his-soul quality putting (sometimes golf enthusiasts denigrate good putting if not accompanied by good ball-striking) so far this week, if it weren’t for the fact that just average putting earlier this year would have probably won him at least a couple more tournaments, perhaps including the British Open.

Anyway, for the rest of the field, this putting performance probably is starting to look ominous. For those of us fans who still haven’t entirely warmed to Tiger after all these years, it is a reminder of what a preternatural force of nature he sometimes can be.