Woods will fight to make cut at National
POTOMAC, Md. – Tiger’s latest comeback is losing its bite.
After surprising himself, his competitors and fans the world over this year by nearly winning in his fourth start, one that came less than a year after he had spinal fusion surgery, could barely walk and had no idea if he’d ever play golf again, Woods has lapsed into a stretch of maddening mediocrity.
Patience seems to be the one thing holding his game together, for all the mojo he built up earlier this year and then in The Players Championship in May, when a weekend rush of red numbers put him in contention late on Sunday, has nearly vanished.
This was evident in Thursday’s first round of the Quicken Loans National at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. While there was palpable buzz and heightened anticipation in the large galleries following Tiger’s every step, he came out flat, ignited few roars and needed a late rally to salvage his round.
Through 10 holes, his play matched the overcast skies, and while he was clearly frustrated, there were no fits of anger. His first of limited highlights was the par he made on the 11th, which was the toughest hole on the PGA Tour last year. Woods had to chop out of a forest with his second shot but then got up-and-down from 150 yards for par.
Woods finally made a birdie on the driveable par-4 14th, where he nearly drove the green with a 3-wood, chipped to 3 feet and canned the putt. After missing from 7 feet for birdie on the 15th, where his putt didn’t come close to hitting the hole, he holed from 9 feet on the 16th for his only other birdie.
It was another round where Woods couldn’t piece all facets of his game together. On a calm day when Andrew Landry and J.J. Spaun shot 63 to share the lead, Billy Horschel and Andrew Putnam came home in 64 and Beau Hossler and Abraham Ancer shot 65, Woods could do no better than an even-par 70. He was tied for 48th in the field of 120 when he signed his scorecard.
“I shot the score I should have shot,” Woods said. “I didn’t have anything going in the middle part of the round, just kept hanging in there, hanging in there. Hit some poor tee shots and didn’t really give myself a chance.”
And now Tiger will chase the cut again in Friday’s second round before thinking about chasing the trophy.
Although he’s one of the best putters to ever play the game, putting woes have been his main enemy of late. His stats are alarming. Ahead of the first round in the National, he ranked 89th in Strokes Gained: Putting. Ranked 115th in 3-putt avoidance. Was tied for 80th in outing average. There are other stats, but you get the picture.
Woods didn’t like seeing what his putter was doing his last three starts and changed the look with a new putter — a TaylorMade TP Ardmore 3 mallet putter that replaced his Scotty Cameron Newport 2 blade putter he used to win 13 of his 14 major championships.
While he rolled the ball better, the new putter didn’t produce results.
“I hit a lot of good putts,” said Woods, who headed to the putting green after his round with the Ardmore 3, indicating the short stick will stay in the bag.
Trouble was, Tiger’s good putts came from long distance — 29 feet on 1, 50 feet on 3, 35 feet on 4, 40 feet on 7, 22 feet on 9. When he had better chances, he still couldn’t convert — from 17 feet on 8, 12 feet on 12, 6 feet on 13, and 7 feet on 15.
Woods won’t panic even if he misses the cut. He won’t add a tournament to his schedule to gain more reps, in large part because he needs to pace himself because of the fused back.
Instead, he’ll continue to fight through his current pitfalls and hope to rekindle the momentum he had just last month.
“Overall it was a good day,” Woods said. “But not the day I really wanted.”