Uphill battle for struggling Tiger
TIGER Woods made birdie at the first hole, only to watch his day go racing downhill from there.
By the time it was over, Woods skidded to seven bogeys and a sixover-par 76 on Saturday, tumbling down the leaderboard and matching his worst round as a pro at the US Open. That left him 10 strokes behind third-round leader Phil Mickelson.
Despite a bogey on the final hole at Merion – the 18th was so tough it didn’t yield a single birdie in the third round – Mickelson was the sole survivor to par Saturday with an even-par 70 that gave him a oneshot lead over Hunter Mahan, Steve Stricker and former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel of South Africa.
Despite leading the PGA Tour in putting in recent weeks, Woods needed 36 putts on the severely undulating greens. He blamed his inability to gauge the speed of those baffling putting surfaces for his three days of uneven play – and he was right.
Woods is tied for third in fairways hit and 22nd in reaching the greens in regulation. But he’s averaged 32 putts per round, which left him tied for 53rd in the field of 73 players. “It’s certainly frustrating because I was feeling like I was playing well this week and I just didn’t make the putts I needed to make,” he said.
“The first two days, I had, like, three three-putts and I was four shots off the lead, and I missed a boatload of putts within 10 feet. So I really wasn’t that far off. If I clean up the round and don’t three-putt, I’m one shot back starting out today,” Woods added.
“Basically, I just didn’t have the speed right this week and it certainly showed.”
Woods’ toughest stretch came at the third to sixth, where he made three bogeys in a four-hole stretch.
He blamed the last of those for setting the negative tone that hung over his round like the storm clouds that rolled over Merion throughout Thursday’s opening round. His troubles on the sixth included a tee shot that finished up in another player’s divot in the fairway, as well as a delicate greenside chip that rolled back and left him facing his next shot from farther back.
“I think the (bogey) five really turned my round around,” said Woods. “I drove it right in the middle of the fairway and I end up in a ball mark from somebody else’s ball mark.”
What made his performance perhaps even more surprising is that Woods has already won four times this season, including The Players Championship – sometimes called golf’s fifth major – and three of his last five starts. Most recently, however, Woods stumbled to an eightover-par finish and a tie for 65th at the Memorial, a tournament he’d won five times.
Woods now faces the prospect of beginning the final day of yet another major with only the longest of shots to contend. What little consolation he could muster came when someone asked, “Tough day?” “Yeah,” Woods replied. “At least I started well.” — Sapa-AP