Tiger bit by putting issues in 2nd round
NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Tiger Woods had a very simple explanation for the difference between his 62 on Thursday in the first round of the BMW Championship and his 70 on Friday.
“I didn’t make any putts,” Woods said after his round at Aronimink Golf Club. “I hit a lot of beautiful putts that were on top of the edge and then obviously hit a couple bad ones on the last hole. But it looked like all the putts were going to go in, but they didn’t go in today. I hit it just as good and I putted it just as good. Nothing went in. That’s the way it goes.
“That round today was easily 6-, 7under par. I turned it into even-par, which is not what I needed to do today.”
Simple enough, right? Well, he did look the same, save for the peach shirt and black slacks, and swung the club the same way and had an aura about him that matched that of Thursday. But his eight-shot swing wasn’t simply a result of putts not going in as Woods fell out of a share of the lead after 18 holes into a tie for 12th after his 62-70 left him at 8 under.
He’ll start the third round five shots behind Xander Schauffele (13 under) and with a bunch of the game’s best players between him and the top of the leaderboard, including Justin Rose (11 under), Rickie Fowler (10 under), Hideki Matsuyama (10 under), Rory McIlroy (9 under), defending FedExCup champion Justin Thomas (9 under) and Jason Day (9 under).
For starters, there was little electricity. On Thursday, Woods got his mojo going quickly with three birdies in his first four holes. On Friday, he remained in idle and didn’t make his first birdie until the ninth hole.
Other factors were involved, too, including Woods’ inability to hit the ball as close to the hole in the second round as he did in the first round. On Thursday, under sunlit skies and temps hitting the high 90s, Woods was spectacular, ranking third in the field of 69 with his proximity to the hole with his approach shots. On Friday, under overcast skies and amid cooler temps, Woods ranked north of 50. Yes, Woods did burn a lot of edges with his birdie putts, but he had a lot of scoring putts from 20 to 40 feet.
“As soft as the golf course was, they had a lot of back pins and I couldn’t get back there, couldn’t skip the ball back there,” Woods said. “You don’t want to go long, you don’t want to carry it past the hole and skip over the back.
“It was a difficult task to try and flight one to get it back there without, you know, hitting it over the back.”
This was evident on his first hole, when his short iron spun back 40 feet.
But there was no explanation for his bogey on the fifth when, from 130 yards and with a sand wedge in his hand, he missed the green and made bogey.
Woods did make birdie from 2 feet on 11 and a two-putt birdie on the par-5 16th, but he ended his round with a bogey on the 17th after finding a bunker with his tee shot, and another bogey on 18 with a three-putt from 40 feet.
“Got to make birdies,” Woods said about his plan on the weekend. “I have to make birdies and try and keep pace, and this golf course is playing soft and getable and tomorrow will be the same thing.”