SUPER GROUP HIT ALL THE WRONG NOTES

AT 8.25am on a gorgeous Florida morning, there were thousands of people gathered around the 10th tee to welcome the so-called ‘Super Group’ of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler. If that made them sound like a gathering of Seventies musicians, over the next five hours in the second round of the Players Championship the greatest hits were in short supply. In a long-sleeved shirt, Mickelson appeared to be the golfer who longed to be a CEO, and certainly played more like one of the latter than the former. Two dropped shots in his first four holes, to go with his calamitous 79 on Thursday, and making the halfway cut became a forlorn cause. He did, mind, come out with the quote of the day. Asked about his unusual choice of attire, the 47-year-old said: ‘I like it. I don’t think anyone pulls off the slightly overweight, middle-aged look on tour quite as well as me.’ Parts of Tiger’s game were good. He found plenty of fairways with his two-iron ‘stinger’ off the tee that will be such a useful weapon at The Open at Carnoustie this summer. But he still has the same distance control issues with his wedges that caused him such problems at the Masters. When he did hit the odd one close enough for a birdie opportunity, the putt would slip by. A classic example came at the marvellous trio of holes that close out this course. Woods (right) birdied the 16th to get to one under and then struck his tee shot to the island green 17th to 10 feet. It was the sort of putt he holed so often in days of yore but this one didn’t drop and he then missed from similar length at the 18th for a bogey. One step forward, one step back was a recurring theme of his opening 36 holes, and he couldn’t afford that in perfect weather conditions that saw South African Charl Schwartzel and gifted young American Patrick Cantlay set the early pace on 10 under par. Woods followed his opening 72 with a 71 to be nine shots behind. Fowler suffered the same fate as Mickelson and will spend the weekend at home. Australian Jason Day continued his recent revival with a round of 67 to finish two shots adrift, while 2017 Masters champion Sergio Garcia is only three back after a 69.