Tiger Misses Cut At The Open Championship

Tiger Woods missed the cut at The Open Championship by five strokes after posting a two-day total of 6-over par. Woods was mostly out of the tournament after shooting a first-round 78, his worst round in a major championship since carding an 81 at the 2002 Open.

After his dramatic win at the Masters in April, Tiger Woods failed to capture that Augusta magic over the remainder of the season, including his lackluster performance at Royal Portrush, home to the 2019 Open.

Woods warned the media that his game wasn’t close to being ready in the days leading up the 148th Open Championship. “(My game is) not quite as sharp as I’d like to have it right now,” Woods said after a practice round on Tuesday.

 

Thursday’s Round

On Thursday, Woods struggled early, posting a front-nine 41. After making par on each of the first four holes, Woods went 4-over on the next three holes, including a tough double-bogey at the par-3 6th. Woods had trouble in all facets of the game during this horrible stretch. He missed fairways, skulled chips and chunked a relatively easy flop shot.

On the back nine, Woods bogeyed the 10th and 14th to push his score to 6-over. His lone birdie came next on the par-4 15th as Tiger needed a long putt to fall to card his first three of the day. As the ball fell into the hole, Woods threw his arms up and smiled, acknowledging the day was not going well.

After a series of pars, Woods bogeyed the final hole for a score of 78 on the day. Woods’ round of 7-over was one of his worst rounds ever in a major championship.

 

Friday’s Round

Woods was facing an uphill climb to make the cut as he teed up to start his Friday at The Open Championship.

Tiger’s second round started well as the golfer birdied the first hole. Then, after four straight pars, Woods added another birdie on the par-3 6th hole. But his strong start was derailed as Woods failed to make a par putt on the 7th hole, carding a rally-killing bogey.

After Tiger made the turn, he strung together two straight birdies, pushing his second-round total to 3-under after 11 holes. But Woods couldn’t take advantage of favorable conditions on the remainder of the back-nine and instead dropped a shot each on the 17th and 18th hole, to end his second round with a 1-under 70.

 

Tiger’s Golfing Future

After missing the cut, Woods said he was “ready to go home,” citing the disappointment of not performing better in the final major of the year.

“It’s more frustrating than anything else because this is a major championship and I love playing in these events,” Woods said. “I love the atmosphere. I love just the stress of playing in a major. And unfortunately, I’ve only had a chance to win one of them and was able to do it. But the other three I didn’t do very well.”

The 15-time major winner suggested that his poor play at The Open Championship was due to injuries and an inability to quickly rebound due to age, golf workouts might be helpful. Woods acknowledged that he struggled to maintain a high level of play over the final three majors of 2019 due to the toll that the numerous surgeries that the golfer has undergone throughout his career.

“It’s just a matter of being consistent,” Tiger said. “That’s one of the hardest things to accept as an older athlete is that you’re not going to be as consistent as you were at 23. Things are different. And I’m going to have my hot weeks. I’m going to be there in contention with a chance to win, and I will win tournaments.

“But there are times when I’m just not going to be there. And that wasn’t the case 20-some-odd years ago. I had a different body, and I was able to be a little bit more consistent.”

Woods plans to play in the FedEx Championship beginning on August 8th. The playoff will force Woods to play in three straight tournaments for the first time all year if Tiger can advance to the final stage.