Woods is over the Hills
NO SOUTHERN COMFORT AFTER 79 AS TIGER ‘STUCK ON BOGEY TRAIN’
A PAINED Tiger Woods suffered a traumatic third round at the US PGA Championship as his joy at making the cut turned to unbridled misery with a nineover-par 79 yesterday.
Woods’ game fell apart in the cold, squally conditions at Southern Hills with the grim run of five successive bogeys from the ninth – his worst in a Major in his professional career.
“I couldn’t get off the bogey train there, or on any other train too,” said Woods.
“I didn’t do anything right. I didn’t hit many good shots. Consequently I ended up with a pretty high score.
“I’m sore, I know that is for a fact, but we’ll do some work and see how it goes tomorrow.”
As a stuttering Saturday, it was reminiscent of The Masters six weeks ago where Woods went on to suffer the worst weekend of his career. Only somehow it was more harrowing.
There was a sadness to seeing one of sport’s great champions so diminished. Woods has been golf ’s Superman but this was Clark Kent in broken glasses.
For a player who has crested the highest summits in Major Championships, winning 15 of them, bumping along near the bottom of the weekend warriors represents a terrible famine after the feast.
His legacy as one of the two greatest players of all time is secure. So why bother? Why go through the agony?
It has taken three hours of treatment before each round for Woods just to tee his ball up in Tulsa.
The Masters and the US
PGA have been the most testing environments Woods could have returned to given the extent of the injuries he sustained in his car smash 15 months ago.
If Augusta was Woods’ Everest, as he described it before this championship, Southern Hills was his K2.
Others, less stubborn, would have hobbled away.
Rory McIlroy among them.
“He’s feeling it on every swing but he is just incredibly resilient and mentally tough,” said McIlroy.
“He’s the ultimate pro.”
The Oklahomans set their alarms and turned up in their droves to see Woods yesterday, layering up against the cold. Southern Hills’ transformation from the fan oven of the first two days after a storm swept through and delayed play for half an hour was total.
Louis Oosthuizen played in a snood and Rickie Fowler donned giant mittens between shots.
The plunging temperature did nothing for Woods’ creaking body. Wearing a black sleeveless pullover, he set out 12 strokes behind leader Will Zalatoris and was soon 13 back after driving into the creek at the second.
There was more watery woe at the shot sixth as he triplebogeyed after splashing down well short of the green.
When he missed a six-footer for par at the seventh the writing was on the wall for what was to come.
But it was still hard to watch. His only birdie of the day from 25 feet at the 15th drew a sardonic celebration from Woods and eventually a weak smile. It only served to mask the hurt inside.
Americans Webb Simpson and Brendan Steele set the early pace yesterday. Simpson finished one-under par after a third-round 65, with Steele also one-under after a round of 69.
England’s Laurie Canter finished on two under after a 70, tied with American Lucas Glover, after an excellent 68.