Woods letdown by putting on hard day
HERO WORLD CHALLENGE After a shaky start, American great makes amends over the next 16 holes but ends day with double bogey
ALBANY, BAHAMAS: Host Tiger Woods served a bland starter, a spicy main course and a dessert that left a bad taste in the mouth at the Albany Golf Course on Friday afternoon. The 14-time Major winner got off to a shaky start hitting the bunker with the very first shot of the day but managed to par the opening hole.
He then put up a thrilling display over the next 16 holes, hitting five birdies and missing another six by the slightest of margins. And finally, amid shouts of “Tiger, Tiger” and “C’mon Big Cat” from either side of the ropes, he finished the day with a double-bogey at the 18th which could easily have been a triple had he not been spared a one-shot penalty for hitting the ball twice while trying to get it out of a palm bush. His day undone, Woods settled for 2-under 142 at tied-14th with Hideki Matsuyama and Bubba Watson.
Spain’s Jon Rahm and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson shot into halfway lead with 10-under 134. Rahm shot a day’s best nine-under and Stenson carded six-under on Friday. Resuming on an overnight card of one-over 73, Woods got his first birdie at the third and then followed it up with birdies at sixth, ninth, 14th and 15th to be at four-under overall going into the 18th hole. Woods missed six birdie putts at the eighth, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th and 17th holes.
“Well, I didn’t really figure out my putter today, missed quite a few short ones. I hit the ball close enough to really have a shot at a low score, just didn’t do it,” Woods said coming out of PGA Tour vice-president (Rules & Competitions) Mark Russell’s tent adjacent to the club house after a hearing for violation.
Woods hit his 18th tee shot towards the right of the fairway into a palm bush where the ball got stuck inside a mesh of leaves and wires of the broadcasters. After the wires were removed by officials without disturbing the ball, Woods bent down on a knee and did something like a hockey drag-flick using his 8-iron to get the ball back on the fairway’s edge and went on to double bogey.
PGA Tour officials looked at television replays and determined after a lengthy review that the club hit the ball more than once. But under the rule (14.1a) amended in May 2017, officials can only call violation if it could be “reasonably” seen with the naked eye. “When you slowed it down to ultra-slow motion, high definition television, you could see where the ball did stay on the club-face quite a bit of time, and it looked like he might have hit it twice. But slow motion technology is exempt from rule and so no penalty,” Russell clarified. Leaderboard: 134: Jon Rahm (71, 63); Henrik Stenson (68, 66); 135: Dustin Johnson (68, 67); Patrick Cantlay (65, 70); 136: Tony Finau (72, 64).