Tiger Woods Stumbles Late, Shoots Second-Round 74 at Genesis Invitational
LOS ANGELES – The early-morning chill on Friday at Riviera Country Club was less of a problem for Tiger Woods than simply having a cold putter.
But the 15-time major winner made the 36-hole cut on the number.
Woods, making his first competitive start since the British Open last July, could not capitalize on his early opportunities during the second round of the Genesis Invitational and then didn’t have the necessary cushion when he bogeyed three of his last four holes to shoot 74.
That left him at 143, 1 over par for the tournament and a shot outside the cut line with the afternoon wave of players still playing. The top 65 and ties make the 36-hole cut
“I did not putt well today, I blocked a lot of putts early and this is probably the highest score I could have shot today,’’ Woods said. “Probably should have shot five or six better than this easily. Just didn't make the putts early and the middle part of the round when I had those opportunities. And they weren't very hard putts, I just hit bad putts and obviously had a very bad finish, too.”
If there was a good sign, it was that Woods appeared to hold up quite well physically. As he did Thursday, Woods hit numerous good tee shots and put himself in position several times to take advantage. The problem was, he couldn’t do so.
Still dealing with the injuries he suffered in a car crash near Riviera two years ago, Woods has issues with his lower right leg, specifically his ankle. He noted that in a pre-tournament news conference that it is a constant goal to keep strengthening and conditioning. And at times, he wears down.
But Woods hit plenty of good shots. He simply didn’t make enough on the greens.
Although Woods managed to coax in three 10-footers for par, it was the shorter birdie putts he couldn’t convert that ultimately put him in trouble.
There were also a couple of unusual gaffes – a badly chunked iron shot, putting into a bunker – that put him nervously close to the cut line as he played the final holes. It was at the par-3 sixth where his tee shot hit on a ridge and rolled to the bottom of the green has a bunker in the middle of it.
Woods tried to figure out what to do, ultimately deciding to putt – and watching the ball roll into the bunker.
“If I chipped it up on top, there's a chance that it could actually come back to the front part of the green,’’ he said. “I did that drop there in the pro-am and I threw it up on the hill and it came all the way to the front part of the green, so there was that part of it.
“I was actually trying to hit the ball -- my putt over to where J.T. (Justin Thomas) was and the hill caught it more than I thought it would and ended up in a bunker. I mean, I was trying to give myself a chance at making par and at worst bogey.
“So realistically I had two bad calls on the wind on 6 and 9 and end up costing me two shots there.’’
The reference at the ninth hole – his last – was to his approach that ended up plugged in the front bunker and led to a second straight bogey and third overall.
At the time Woods finished, he was tied for 68th and basically needed a net of four players to go from even par or better to plus one in order to make it to Saturday’s third round.
Once again, Woods showed plenty of power, hitting several long tee shots and even some long-range approaches, including an iron shot from 170 yards into the wind at the par-5 17th that set up a birdie.
But it’s the little ones that plagued him.
Woods missed a 9-footer for birdie at the 10th, his opening hole, a 4-footer at the11th, a 5-footer at the 16th and an 8-footer at the first.
He saved pars with putts of 10 feet or so at the 15th, second and fourth but putted into the bunker on the green at the par-3 sixth, meaning he needed to get up and down for a bogey.
Woods made just two birdies for the round despite several good opportunities after shooting an opening-round 69.