Tiger grinds but fades at finish and stumbles to 73
TIGER Woods grinded his way to a three-over par 73 in Thursday’s opening round of the 120th US Open, putting the 15time major winner in jeopardy of missing the cut.
The inconsistent 44-yearold reigning Masters champion made six pars, six bogeys, five birdies and a closing doublebogey at Winged Foot, leaving him at risk of missing the cut for the third time in his past four US Open starts and fourth time in his career.
“It was a bit of ebb and flow to the round,” Woods said. “I did not finish off the round like I needed to. I made a bunch of putts in the middle part of the round.
“It seemed like most of my drives on the front nine landed in the fairway and ended up in bad spots, and I tried to stay as patient as possible, and unfortunately just did not finish off my round the way I needed to.”
World number 21 Woods has won a record 82 US PGA
Tour titles, matching Sam Snead for the all-time record, and for a time he was fighting to make the most of a tough day.
Woods escaped a greenside bunker to six feet and made the par putt at the par-3 third, but made bogeys at the fourth and fifth before dropping his approach at the sixth to seven feet and sinking the par putt.
He made bogey at eight after finding dense rough off the tee, then responded with three birdies in a row.
Woods sank a 30-foot birdie putt at the par-5 ninth, followed with a 24-foot birdie putt at the par-3 10th and added a 19-foot birdie putt at the par-4 11th.
“The middle part of my round, a lot of things went my way,” Woods said. “Beginning part of the round it seemed like things weren’t going my way. Good tee shots ended up in the rough in bad spots, and I had a nice little hot run there in the middle part of my round.”
But at 17-foot birdie putt lipped out at the par-5 12th and the magic seemed to vanish with it.