Tiger still can’t cut it
SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — It’s gotten to the point where Tiger Woods seems OK with missing three straight cuts in the majors for the first time in his career.
That’s what happened Saturday morning at Whistling Straits — hey, thanks to Mother Nature he made it to the weekend — when he completed his second-round 73 to miss the cut by three shots, 4-over for the tournament. It’s also the first time in his career he’s missed four cuts in a season. But there he was, joking. “I’m going to go home and watch the leaders tee off and play. Probably in Florida. Actually I’ll go to my sports bar, how about that?” he said.
“It’s frustrating to miss any cuts because any time you miss a cut, you don’t have a chance to win the event,” he said. “Even if you’re way out of it ... we saw Paul Lawrie come back from 10 shots in one day (at the ’99 British Open). But you have to give yourself that opportunity and I haven’t given myself that opportunity in the last few majors.”
We still don’t know if this was the last anyone will see of Woods this PGA Tour season. He entered the Wyndham Championship right at the deadline Friday but said he hasn’t made a final decision on it.
“I’m just going to sit back and I’ll go through with my team,” he said. “We’ll talk about it, what I need to do and see if that’s the right move or not. We’ll decide in the next couple days.”
He’ll probably need to win it in order to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs. Otherwise, he’ll have eight weeks off until his next PGA Tour event, next season’s opening tournament, the Frys.Com Open in October.
Woods had to blitz his final five holes after play resumed Saturday morning but pretty much took himself out of it when he bogeyed 14. He did get back one shot with a garbage-time birdie on 17.
Putting, he said, was his downfall.
“I hit it good enough to be where I needed to be, but I putted awful,” he said. “And I finally figured something out today on the putting green, but the damage had already been done. Finally rolled the ball coming in, and unfortunately it was a too little too late.” Woods said his setup was off. “I got my lines organized, and all of a sudden I was seeing my line again. And not only that but I felt like I could roll the ball on my correct pace.”
And so the season could come to an end with his best finish in 10 events being a tie for 17th at the Masters. He finished in the top 20 only one other time. He shot his highest round ever in competition, an 85 at Memorial and his highest round ever in a major, a first-round 80 at the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay. He went from the chip yips to driving troubles.
“Well, the first two (events) were not very good at all,” he said, assessing his year. “Hence I took the break to try and figure it out. And came back at Augusta and had my short game back.
“Then I started getting my ball striking in order, but then I lost my putting. I hit too many balls and neglected my chipping, because I thought that was sound again.
“And then I just need to do both at the same time. I just haven’t done that. I haven’t put together ball striking and putting. It’s been one or the other.”
That’s what a lot of weekend hackers say. It’s part of the “perfect storm” of injuries and swing changes that he says derailed him.
“Well, it just takes time,” he said. “Unfortunately, I hadn’t played that much the last couple years and I’m finally able to start playing. Unfortunately, I’m potentially missing out on the playoffs.
“I guess the PGA Tour season may be coming to a close, but I still got plenty of golf to play around the world,” he said.
He even claimed, “the confidence is growing quickly. That’s the fun part. I’m hitting shots and able to hit shots that I haven’t been able to hit in years and that’s nice again. And to have the control that I need to have going forward, it’s starting to come back, which is nice.”
Too little. Too late.