PUTTS-ING AROUND

Woods shoots 67 despite his shaky short game at Memorial

DUBLIN, Ohio — Tiger Woods could not have thrown away a potentially spectacular round any further if he had the strength of Aaron Judge’s arm in the Yankees outfield.

The record will show Woods shot a 5-under 67 Friday to put himself into contention after two rounds of the Memorial at Muirfield Village Golf Club.

The round came a day after Woods’ lackluster even-par 72 in the first round that left him seven shots out of the lead to 5-under and six shots off the lead shared by Kyle Stanley and 19-year-old Chilean Joaquin Niemann entering the weekend.

Not a bad round, 67. But Woods knows better. Much better.

The lament of every golfer after every round played is always about how it should have been a shot or two better if this or that had happened.

In the case of Woods, he played so well from tee to green Friday as he threw darts at the flags, it should have been sooooo much better.

His poor short putting squandered a round that could — should — have moved him much closer to the lead.

“I did not putt well today,’’ Woods said. “I just hit terrible putts. It could have been easily a nice little 62 or 63. I turned it into a 67. I hit some good shots in there and I had nice control of pretty much everything. Unfortunately, I missed a lot of short putts, which is something I don’t normally do, which is just frustrating.

“I’ve got to clean that up come this weekend and hopefully I can get it going and I can play well like this on the weekend and I’ve got a great chance of winning this tournament.’’

Woods missed five putts from inside 10 feet in the round. It began with a missed five-footer for par on No. 1 (his third putt on the hole) that set the tone for the day.

Then came a missed six-footer for birdie on the par-3 12th hole, where he got a bad break. Before he had the chance to putt it, the horn was sounded to suspend play with dangerous weather in the area. Once the horn sounds, players are forbidden to hit another shot.

So Woods had to wait for 88 minutes to take that putt and, when play finally resumed, he pulled it left. The ball never even touched the edge of the hole.

“I wanted to hit that putt, I wanted to keep it going because I was in the rhythm of the round,’’ Woods said.

So Woods, who hit 9-of-14 fairways and 14-of-18 greens Friday, will begin his third round Saturday six shots behind Stanley, who shot 66, and Niemann, who shot 68. They lead Byeong Hun An (9-under) by two shots and Jason Day, Hideki Matsuyama, J.B. Holmes, Bryson DeChambeau and Wesley Bryan (all 8under) by three.

Adam Scott, in a battle to elevate his world ranking into the top 60 to qualify for the U.S. Open and add to his 67-consecutive major championship played streak (the second-longest active streak after Sergio Garcia at 75), shot 66 to get to 6-under.

Justin Thomas, playing in his first event as the No. 1-ranked player in the world, shot 69 and is 3-under. Jordan Spieth, who shot 3-over for two rounds, was the biggest name to miss the cut. Defending champ Jason Dufner, wearing a ball cap that read, “Save the Crew’’ in reference to the Columbus MLS team whose owner is threatening to move the team to Austin, Texas, also missed the cut.

As for Woods, based on his five victories at the Memorial, he has a lot of good memories from which to draw this weekend. He started the week 4-over through his first seven holes in Thursday’s opening round and is 9-under in his last 29 holes.

“I’ve always felt comfortable here,’’ he said. “This golf course has been the one that I just had a good feeling about.’’