Tiger staves off late scare to stay alive for Championship, make cut

SAN FRANCISCO — Tiger Woods had an afternoon of angst Friday as he battled to make the cut at the PGA Championship.

Woods was 1-under par and seemingly safely inside the 1-over-par cut line as he reached the 13th tee. But he bogeyed 13 and 15 to fall to 1-over, suddenly residing on the cutline with three holes to play.

Woods gave himself a slight bit of breathing room with a birdie on the short par-4 16th to get back to even par with two holes to play.

He finished with a second-round 72 and is even-par for the tournament, eight shots behind leader Haotong Li.

“I really struggled with getting the speed of the greens today,’’ Woods said, referencing the 17 putts he took on the front nine. “They looked faster than what they were putting. They were firm coming into the greens, but they weren’t putting as fast as they looked.

Asked if he can “still win’’ this week, Woods said, “Yeah.’’

“[Saturday], I’m going off early and hopefully I can get it going, drive the ball like I did today, hit my irons a little bit more crisp and be a little bit more aggressive on the putts,’’ he said. “If I can get myself in position where like I did today off the tee, I think I can have a really good weekend.’’

The star-power group featuring Woods, Rory McIlroy and world No. 1 Justin Thomas fizzled, with McIlroy leading the way at 1-under, Woods at even and Thomas 1-over. “Once Tiger and I got our tee shots off 18, I just gave him a look like, ‘Phew, glad that’s almost done,’ ’’ McIlroy said. “It was tough out there.

We all didn’t really have our best. We were grinding just to be here for the weekend. But thankfully all three of us made it to the weekend and we all have an opportunity to go out [Saturday] and post a low one and get ourselves back in the tournament.’’

➤ All four Met Arena club pros missed the cut. Rob Labritz, from GlenArbor Golf Club in Bedford

Hills, followed his opening-round 71 with a 76 Friday to finish 7-over.

“Bummed to say the least,’’ Labritz said. “But what doesn’t kill you makes stronger.’’

Jason Caron, from Mill River Club on Long Island, rallied to shoot 72 Friday after a 76 on Thursday, but still missed the cut at 8-over. Danny Balin, from Fresh Meadow, and Alex Beach, from Westchester

Country Club, also missed the cut, with Balin finishing at 10-over after shooting 76 on Friday and Beach finishing 4-over after shooting 71.

➤ Bryson DeChambeau’ s superpowers with the driver faltered on Friday.

The biggest hitter in the game since he transformed his body with some 25 pounds of added muscle that’s produced 20-plus added yards off the tee, sputtered to an even-par 70 and he missed 10-of-14 fairways along the way.

Still, he insisted afterward: “I didn’t feel like I hit it that bad to be honest with you,’’ adding, “There were just a couple holes out there where I misjudged the wind off the tee shot, and consequently the ball went a little off the beaten path.”