WAY OFF COURSE

Tiger’s return to competitive golf is short, misses cut at own tournament by 4 strokes

BETHESDA, Md. − Tiger Woods’ DoubleA conditioning assignment is over. It lasted two days.

Woods missed the cut Friday at the Quicken Loans National, his first start in 12 weeks after back surgery, while lugging a ton of rust around Congressional Country Club.

His 7-over score, with a second-round 4-over-75, was one of the worst 36-hole scores of his career. It was just his 10th missed cut in 299 professional starts on the PGA Tour and broke a string of 26 straight cuts. He tied for 104th in a weak field of 120, 13 shots out of the four-way lead shared by Patrick Reed, Marc Leishman, Oliver Goss and Ricky Barnes.

But with sweat from the hot, humid conditions dripping from his face, Woods did the only thing he could do − try to take the positives out of the two days as he sets his sights on the British Open at Royal Liverpool in three weeks. The list began with his ability to play again.

“I missed the cut by four shots. That’s a lot,” he admitted.

But he added, “I hate to say it but I’m really encouraged by what happened this week. I came back four weeks earlier than we thought that I could. The thing I was worried about most was hitting driver, and I roasted most of them the last two days.”

It was really his short game that let him down, particularly his putter, which he used 30 times Friday, 61 times in all. Woods made the excuse that he’s been practicing on Bermuda grass at home − “it’s totally different and it showed. I was off,” he said. But some of his misses were alarming.

He was just 3-for-16 in scrambling on the week. Of 21 putts over 10 feet he made just three and he was just 2-for-7 on putts from four to eight feet.

“I made so many little mistakes, missing the ball on the wrong sides, not having the right feel for certain shots, not judging the wind correctly,” Woods said. “All the little things, and speed on putts, all the little things that I know I can fix.”

Woods actually pulled off a great save from the trees on the second hole in what was a promising sign. But the next three holes doomed him. He lost a chance to get the round going when he slid a six-foot birdie putt past the hole and followed that up with a double bogey on No. 5.

Woods was in pretty good shape off the tee, in the first cut 131 yards out, but his approach shot buried itself in the bunker. His only play was to swipe at it and keep it in the sand. He hit a poor explosion shot well past the cup and missed that putt to get back to 5-over.

Woods said he will not play again until the British in Hoylake so this will have to serve as his tuneup. He plans to vacation with his kids next week.