HANGING ON
Tiger makes Masters cut, but likely won’t contend for jacket
AUGUSTA, Ga. — It was not the second round Tiger Woods envisioned. Instead of climbing the leaderboard on Friday, the four-time Masters winner had to battle to survive the cut and play the weekend. A bad start led to a disappointing round of 3-over 75, dropping him to 4-over for the tournament and just one in front of the cutline. “I didn’t hit my irons at all,” Woods said. “I hit so many beautiful putts, but nothing went in. I just didn’t hit my irons very crisp and clean and didn’t control my distances.” After shooting 1-over on Thursday, Woods began his day with a bogey on the first hole, where he missed the green from less than 100 yards away and left himself a 25-foot putt for par that he missed. He suffered a double-bogey at the par-4 fifth hole where his approach shot sailed over the green into the bushes for an unplayable lie. Woods struggled with his irons and his putting throughout the day. He took another bogey at the par-3 12th, where his tee-shot found the water for the second straight day. It put him at 5-over and in danger of missing the cut. After not being able to do better than par on any of the four par 5s during Thursday’s opening round, Woods parred his first two par 5s on the front nine on Friday. But he managed a birdie at the par-5 13th after reaching in two and then added another birdie at the 15th after a hard hook from the right side of the fairway left an easy up and down from the back of the green.
Woods made a 3-footer for birdie to get back to 3-over. But he ruined his momentum with a bogey at the par-3 16th where his tee-shot landed above the hole and his putt for birdie raced 10-feet past the cup. Woods missed the comeback and dropped back to 4-over.
Woods missed potential birdie putts at the 17th and 18th and settled for maintaining his streak of never having missed a cut at the Masters. He has little chance of winning his fifth green jacket, however.
“I’m going to have to shoot a special weekend and need help,” he said. “I don’t know what the weather is going to be. But I need to shoot something in the mid-60s and hope I do the same thing on Sunday.”
Woods, 42, is less than a year removed from back fusion surgery and playing in his first Masters since 2015.
“It was about six months ago I didn’t know if I was going to be able to play golf again,” he said. “It’s just incredible. I’m just thankful to have the opportunity to play golf again.”