A CUT BELOW
Tiger will miss weekend after ugly 2nd round at Riviera
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — The feel-good journey that is Tiger Woods’ comeback has hit its first pothole.
Woods, playing in his second full-field tournament in the past year, missed the cut at the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club thanks to a sloppy back nine Friday.
Woods carded a 5-over 76 to flame out at 6-over for two days — a few zip codes away from making the cut and playing the weekend to compete with the leaders, Patrick Cantlay and Graeme McDowell, who are in the house at 7-under. Sam Saunders also is 7-under, but has four holes to finish his second round, which was suspended because of darkness Friday.
Three weeks ago, Woods, who owns the record for consecutive cuts made at 142, played all four rounds in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines and finished tied for 23rd, leaving San Diego with a positive feeling about his return from back surgery.
He had hopes of improving on that result this week in a tournament run by and benefiting his foundation. But back-to-back-toback bogeys on Nos. 11, 12 and 13 Friday derailed any chance of that. Woods missed short par putts on Nos. 11 and 12, then he missed a 12-footer for par on 13.
That skid left him 5-over with five holes to play, with the cut at that time hovering at 1-over, which is where he began the day.
“I didn’t really play that well today,” Woods said. “I missed every tee shot left, and I did not putt well, didn’t feel very good on the greens and consequently never made a run. I knew I had to make a run on that back nine, and I went the other way. I’ve got the weekend off, some more days to work on it.”
As the tournament host, Woods has obligations to remain in the area through the trophy presentation Sunday.
His assessment of his game through two tournaments?
“I’m both pleased and also not very happy with some parts of it,” Woods said. Most discouraging? “Just the inconsistency of it,” he said. “I’ve just got to play more tournaments.”
Rory McIlroy (2-under), who along with Justin Thomas (also 2under) played alongside Woods the past two days, was bullish on where his boyhood idol is headed despite the missed cut.
“He’s very close,” McIlroy said. “Give him a little bit of time. He’s still figuring a few things out with equipment, I think, sort of in between drivers and whatever, but he’s close. We saw that [Thursday] when I thought his short-game display was very, very impressive.
“He hits enough good shots to know that if he sort of pieces it all together, he’s going to be right there. I think everyone just has to be patient with him, especially him being patient with it and just give himself time.”
Still, it was a discouraging round and a bad end to the week for Woods, who’s desperate for competitive tournament rounds as he attempts to ramp up for the Masters, which would be the first major championship he has played in since the 2015 PGA Championship.
Maybe it was a sign Woods knew this was coming that, as he was playing the front nine, news came of his commitment to next week’s Honda Classic.
His options to play before Augusta are limited because two of the upcoming tournaments are World Golf Championship events for which he’s not qualified to play based on his world ranking, which was 550th entering this week. A third tournament, the Houston Open, is the week before the Masters, and Woods never plays a tournament the week before a major.