Getty Image / Jamie Squire
This week’s Tiger Woods looked nothing like the Tiger Woods we saw win his fifth green jacket a month ago. Sure, Bethpage Black is a different animal with a little less Tiger history built-in than Augusta National, but Woods just flat-out struggled for 36 holes on his way to missing the cut at the PGA Championship by a stroke on Friday at five-over.
Before getting into just how bad it was, it is worth noting that Woods entered the tournament under the weather. The 43-year-old Tiger is a little more cautious these days during preparation, but after not playing a tournament round since The Masters win in April, it’s safe to say he was fighting something somewhat serious because it kept him away from any sort of practice at the course on Wednesday.
He was asked about whether or not a lack of practice or preparation took any part in his missed cut, but Tiger hit the media with a pretty wicked answer saying “No, no, no. Definitely not. You know, I’m the Masters champion and 43 years old and that’s a pretty good accomplishment.”
Whatever the case may be, you could visibly see he wasn’t in the best of spirits throughout the week. It didn’t help that he was playing poorly, but he never really looked all that interested or show that Tiger-look prior to turning things on.
Things weren’t right from the get-go on Thursday as he opened his tournament up with a double-bogey. Granted the 10th hole, his first of the day, played as the second toughest during the opening round, the double bogey proved to be a sign of what was to come.
The only stretch we saw any sort of life out of Tiger was when he made the turn on Thursday. He opened his second nine with back-to-back birdies and eagled the Par 5 fourth hole to get to red figures, but it turned sour quick. Woods bogeyed three of his last five holes on his way to a two-over 72.
The driver actually wasn’t all that bad for Tiger on Thursday as he hit 10-of-14 fairways, but the putter didn’t cooperate as he had 31 putts. You can get away with hitting 10-of-14 fairways at Bethpage, but you can’t get away with hitting only three like he did on Friday. Throw in an extremely cold putter and you’ve got a pretty perfect recipe for the three-over 73 Tiger posted in the second-round.
The thing about Bethpage Black is that if you miss the fairway by even three to four yards you’ll find yourself in some of the thickest rough these guys see all year. If your driver isn’t working, you’re not going to be working and Tiger couldn’t get out of his own way off the tee on Friday. Woods’ nine greens in regulation tell the story about how tough it is to get things going when you’re not in the short grass off the tee.
Wood lost strokes in every category on Friday outside of around the green. Oh, and about that putter, Tiger and his historic Scotty Cameron finished T-78 in the field with 61 total putts and T-111 with 42 putts per green in regulation.
Tiger finished second at last year’s PGA Championship behind Brooks Koepka, but with the missed cut on Friday he’s not played the weekend in three of his last four Championships. Woods has finished no worse than a tie for sixth over his last three majors, but that streak came to an end on Friday.
The message from a lot of the players and commentators all week has been that the course rewards you for good shots and can really hurt you with bad shots. Woods had a few too many bad shots through his 36 holes.
Tiger wasn’t the only big-time name to pack his clubs early as Patrick Reed, Bryson DeChambeau, Sergio Garcia and Jon Rahm missed the cut as well.