What Tiger Woods really needs is to play more real rounds to get used to hitting important shots in big situations again.
Any chance of that happening this weekend came to an ugly end in three bunkers over the first four holes during the second round of the PGA Championship.
Woods made two triple bogeys over those four holes Friday on the way to a 6-over 77 that ensured he would miss the cut.
“Just kept making mistakes and things you can’t do, not just in tournaments but in majors especially,” he said.
He finished the second round at Valhalla, the site of his 2000 PGA title, at 7-over 149 and was tied for 135th place as he packed up his things and left. The top 70 and ties will move to the weekend. When Woods walked off the 18th green, he was eight shots behind the projected cut line.
This will be the fifth time he has missed the cut at the PGA, and the first since 2019. It will mark his 13th missed cut at a major since he turned pro in 1997.
After shooting 1-over 72 on the first day, Woods said he was feeling stronger and needed more real-life rounds.
Hopes for that ended quickly.
On the par-4 second, he tried to flop a shot over a bunker from a patch of rain-soaked rough near the green, but the ball went into the sand. He picked the next shot out of that sand, over the green and into another bunker. He made 7.
“The rough grabbed me at 2,” he said. “No sand in the bunker as well. Just made a mistake there. I compounded the problem there at 4.”
On that hole, he tried to finesse a shot just over a greenside bunker, but it hit the top and rolled back in. His first try to get out hit the top of the trap and rolled back in again. That led to another 7. Counting a bogey on No. 3, he played the three-hole stretch in 7 over.
From there, the only question was whether he would break 80 and avoid his worst score ever at the PGA. That remains a 9-over 79 at Southern Hills in 2022.
His worst score at a major came last month when he shot 82 in the third round of the Masters, en route to finishing last among those who made the cut.
This will be the fifth cut Woods has missed, along with two withdrawals, since he won the Masters in 2019 for his 15th career major. That doesn’t include the seven majors he skipped completely since the start of 2021, when he shattered bones in his right leg and ankle in a car wreck.
Despite this disappointment, Woods said he planned to be at the next major — the U.S. Open next month.
“Hopefully, everything will somehow come together in my practice sessions at home, and I’ll be ready for Pinehurst,” he said.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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