Tiger Woods is returning home this weekend after shooting a 6-over 77 in the second round of the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club on Friday, marking his 11th straight round of par or worse in a major championship.
Woods shot significantly above the anticipated cut line of 1-under 141, finishing with a 36-hole total of 7-over 149. He has withdrawn twice and missed the cut ten times in his last 22 big league starts.
Nevertheless, the 15-time major winner insists his game will improve and that he is recovering from injuries he sustained in a vehicle accident in February 2021.
At Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, on June 13–16, Woods, 48, announced his intention to compete in the upcoming major, the U.S. Open.
With regard to the prospect of his game getting better, Woods stated, “It will — in time.” “I need to play more. Unfortunately, I just haven’t played a whole lot of tournaments, and not a whole lot of tournaments on my schedule either. Hopefully, everything will somehow come together in my practice sessions at home and be ready for Pinehurst.”
For Woods, the start of the round could not have come at a worse time as he made par on the first and blew the par-4 second. Woods hit his second shot into the rough and his third into a bunker after hitting his drive into the left rough. Then he chipped out to twenty-five feet, two-putted for a triple bogey, then skulled a shot across the green and into another bunker.
On the short par-4 fourth hole, Woods made his second triple-bogey in three holes after three-putting for a bogey on the par-3 third. After his drive, he was only 75 yards from the hole; yet, it took him five shots to get to the green. His fourth shot got stuck in the sand, while his third shot landed into a bunker. He smashed his putt from eleven and a half feet away. After four holes of the round, Woods was 7 over.
Prior to Friday, Woods had only made one triple bogey in his 22 prior PGA Championship starts, which occurred on the sixth hole at the Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, third round of the 2022 PGA Championship.
“Well, I got off to a bad start and the rough grabbed me at 2,” Woods stated. “No sand in the bunker as well. Just made a mistake there. I compounded the problem there at 4. Just kept making mistakes and things you can’t do, not just in tournaments but in majors especially. And I just kept making them. I hung around for most of the day but unfortunately the damage was done early.”
Following that disaster, Woods focused on making pars on his next two holes. He chipped to eight feet on the par-5 seventh and sank the birdie putt. The highlight of the round was when he almost birdied the par-3 eighth hole, stopping the ball 4 inches from the cup, bringing him back to 5 over.
However, Woods’ momentum was stopped when he made consecutive bogeys on holes 11 and 12.
Woods shot 1 under over the last 14 holes in the round after taking so much damage early in the game. On the par-5 18th, he pulled his approach ball into the stands and made a birdie. He chipped down to four feet from 98 feet in the rough, and he made the putt.
“Just keep fighting,” Woods advised. “Keep the pedal on, keep fighting, keep grinding, keep working hard at posting the best score that I can possibly post today. That’s all I can do. It’s going to be a lot, but I’m going to fight until the end.”
After 36 holes, Woods wasn’t the only celebrity to be heading home. Wyndham Clark, the current winner of the U.S. Open, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott, Sam Burns, Matt Fitzpatrick, Jon Rahm, and Ludvig Åberg were among those predicted to miss the cut.
