The 150th Open: Two Bears and a Tiger on the Shelf After Missing the Cut at St. Andrews

There will be no Tiger at St. Andrews on the weekend.

And no Bears, either.

Oh my.

Cal grads Collin Morikawa and Max Homa joined Tiger Woods on the sidelines for the final two rounds of The 150th Open, all three missing the cut Friday on the Old Course in the Scottish birthplace of golf.

Morikawa, the defending champion, fought through the final hole but came up short, shooting a second-round 72 and finishing at plus-1 for two days and in 67th place.

He became the first defending champion to miss the cut at The Open since Darren Clarke in 2012.

Homa, playing in the same group with three-time Open champion Woods, shot an even-par 72 on Friday but wound up at plus-1, and also barely missed advancing. The 66 players who shot par or better through two rounds made it to the weekend.

Woods, 16 months removed from major car accident that required surgery on his leg, never flirted with getting to Saturday. He shot a 6-over 78 on Thursday and followed that with a 75 in the second round, finishing 9 over and 22 strokes behind second-round leader Cameron Smith.

Smith, a 28-year-old from Australia who is No. 6 in the world rankings, shot a second-round 64 and is at minus-13, two strokes ahead of first-round leader Cameron Young of the U.S. Smith had six birdies and an eagle on the par-5 13th hole.

Young followed his opening-round 64 with a 69 and is at 11 under, while Rory McIlroy and Victor Hovland are tied for third place at minus-10. LIV-tour defector Dustin Johnson is in fifth place at 9 under, and Scottie Scheffler and Tyrell Hatton are tied for sixth at 8 under.

Morikawa, who carded an even-par 72 on Thursday, got himself into trouble with bogeys on Nos. 2, 8, 9 and 12 and was 3 over for the day at that point. He got one stroke back with a birdie on No. 14 and closed with a birdie on 18 but wound up missing the cut by a single stroke.

Morikawa’s two days produced seven birdies and eight bogeys over 36 holes. A year ago, while winning at Royal St. George’s with a 15-under score, Morikawa totaled 19 birdies and just four bogeys over 72 holes.

Homa had five birdies on Friday but also three bogeys and a double-bogey 6 on the third hole. He finished in the logjam with Morikawa, one stroke from advancing to the weekend.

Homa shared his emotions afterward on social media, celebrating two days where he was able to walk the historic course with Woods.

Typically after a missed cut u hope to flush it from ur memory. But not this one. This was pretty unforgettable. Incredibly bummed to not be playing the weekend but endlessly thankful for the 2 days with Tiger at St Andrews. That walk up 18 was a movie pic.twitter.com/TN34wEBWds
— max homa (@Maxhoma) July 15, 2022

Woods became emotional as he walked down the 18th fairway and crossed the Swilcan Bridge. He noticed that his caddie, Joe LaCava, and two playing partners, Homa and Matt Fitzpatrick, had stopped to give him a moment with fans.

Thousands cheered for the three-time Open champion, who tipped his cap.

"That's when I started to realize, hey, the next time it comes around here, I might not be around," Woods said.

Woods, who wasn’t even a sure bet to play St. Andrews until the past couple weeks, wished he could have performed better.

"I'm a little ticked that I'm not playing on the weekend," Woods said. "I certainly did not play good enough to be around. I wish I would have played better. I wish I had a little bit better break at the first hole yesterday and maybe started off a little better.

"But that's just kind of how it all went from there. Just never really kind of materialized. I fought hard, and, unfortunately, I just could never turn it around.”

Cover photo of Max Homa by Rob Schumacher, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo

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