Rusty Woods misses 36-hole cut in PGA Tour comeback
Shaking off rust was a priority for Tiger Woods in his first PGA Tour event in 17 months and the former world golf No 1 was encouraged by his improvement over two rounds, despite missing the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open yesterday.
While some critics feel that Woods still needs to make technical adjustments to his swing after being sidelined by back pain and spine surgery, the 41-year-old dwelt on the positives after shooting a level-par 72 in the second round at Torrey Pines outside San Diego.
‘‘I hit it much better today,’’ Woods told reporters after posting a four-over total of 148 to miss the cut by four strokes.
‘‘I made a couple of little tweaks and changes in my swing and my set-up which was good.
‘‘Good communication between [caddie] Joey [LaCava] and I out there while playing, what he’s seeing and what I’m feeling. It was good. He’s rusty as well. I’m rusty.
‘‘I felt like I made some nice strides, just wish I could be playing at the weekend because I really love this golf course.’’
Woods has fond memories of Torrey Pines, where he has won the PGA Tour event a record seven times and also the 2008 US Open at the same venue for the last of his 14 major titles.
However, he faced an uphill task in his bid to make the cut after he had struggled to a four-over 76 in the opening round with a rusty and often erratic display.
All too often, Woods leaked shots out to the right in that first round on the more difficult South Course, paying a steep price for persisting with attempts to draw the ball from right to left.
‘‘He loves to go for that draw and it just wasn’t coming back,’’ said six-times major winner Nick Faldo, an analyst for Golf Channel.
‘‘Yet he hit a couple of great shots in that first round . . . when he was trying to play a low fade.
‘‘I think that does so many good things to his body, it gets him in the right place, gets him through impact. Otherwise he aims so far left and starts the ball so far right, he is fighting things.’’
For Woods, the cold, wet conditions at Torrey Pines were also a big concern.
‘‘It’s a long process in the mornings, trying to get ready, trying to get warmed up,’’ he said. ‘‘The tall order then is just to stay warm and stay loose . . . and I did.
‘‘Playing tournament golf is a little bit different from playing with your buddies back home in a cart. I need to get more rounds under my belt.’’
More surprising this weekend will be the absence of Woods’ playing partners on the first two days – Jason Day and Dustin Johnson, the world’s No 1 and No 3 players.
They finished at three-over and two-over, respectively. Two other top-25 players also missed the cut: Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker.
The top of the leaderboard didn’t change from day one, with Justin Rose maintaining a one-shot lead after a one-under 71 on the South Course. Defending Farmers champion Brandt Snedeker (69, South) and Adam Hadwin (71, North) were tied for second, with Ollie Schniederjans (69, North) and Keegan Bradley (69, South) another shot back.
Left-hander Tim Wilkinson was the only New Zealander to make the cut, ending the second round in a tie for 35th after rounds of 70 and 72. Danny Lee and Steve Alker joined Woods in missing the cut with scores of 150 and 155 respectively.
Meanwhile, a record-breaking nine golfers are into a tie for the lead after two rounds of the European Tour’s Qatar Masters, with Kiwi Ryan Fox making the cut to play at the weekend.
Fox is six shots off the lead, after a two-under second round 70 blighted by his second consecutive bogey on the par-five finishing hole. Fox, who finished in the top 20 last week, was three-under going out only to have back-to-back bogeys on 10 and 11. Birdies on 12 and 14 put him back on course and he ended the round tied for 57th in a packed field.
In his first full year on the European Tour, he started with a ninth in the Australian PGA Championship and a 19th at Abu Dhabi last week.
At the top of the leaderboard, Welshman Bradley Dredge stayed on his overnight lead at eightunder, joined there by South Africans Thomas Aiken and Jaco Van Zyl, Thai Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Spanish duo Jorge Campillo and Nacho Elvira, Finn Mikko Korhonen, Englishman Andy Sullivan and South Korean Jeunghun Wang.
It is the first time in European Tour history that nine players have shared the lead after 36 holes.
- Wires