Tiger, Mcilroy out of Abu Dhabi golf
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates Ð Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy missed the cut at the Abu Dhabi Championship on Friday, a woeful start to the season for the world’s top two golfers.
Woods missed out only after he was penalized two shots for wrongly taking a free drop, while top-ranked McIlroy was frustrated trying to adjust to his new Nike clubs, even though he used his old Titleist putter in the second round.
Justin Rose, meanwhile, played solid, mistake-free golf. Away from the large galleries, the Englishman shot a 3-under 69 for a total of 136 and a one-shot lead at the halfway point over Jamie Donaldson (70) of Wales, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (67) of Spain and Thorbjorn Olesen (69) of Denmark.
Woods and McIlroy were expected to contend for the lead but often looked like weekend golfers. Their struggles captivated the crowds and their departure means it is the first time the world’s top two players missed a cut in the same tournament since McIlroy and Luke Donald at the 2012 US Open. The last time in a regular tournament was in 2005 by Woods and Vijay Singh at Disney World.
“I didn’t hit it particularly well. I putted great but just didn’t hit it very good. I was struggling with that,” Woods said. “I have some work to do, and next week I’m playing at Torrey (in San Diego), and obviously it will be different weather there, so going to go back and get ready.”