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DUBLIN, Ohio – Tiger Woods is facing the possibility of missing the cut at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide for the first time in his illustrious career.
Woods, playing for the first time since February, stumbled from his T18 overnight position thanks to a 4-over 76 at Muirfield Village Golf Club on Friday morning. It left him 3-over for the tournament, just outside the current cut line that will keep the top 65 players and ties around for the weekend.
The 82-time PGA TOUR winner has made the weekend in all 17 previous attempts at the tournament, winning five times at the Jack Nicklaus elevated status event. But he now must rely on the afternoon wave stumbling enough to allow his tilt at a record 83rd win to continue.
“I would like to have the opportunity to play tomorrow, and hopefully the cut will fall one more and I’ll have the opportunity,” Woods said post round.
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Woods will also be hoping his troublesome back, which has undergone multiple surgeries, will be a little looser. The 44-year-old confirmed he was a little tight in the second round after feeling stiff during his warmup.
“I wasn’t quite moving as well as I’d like and couldn’t quite turn back and couldn’t quite clear. It was a bit of a struggle,” Woods said.
“It started this morning during the warmup. It wasn’t quite as good as I’d like, and it is what it is. The last four or five years have been difficult as I’ve gone through procedures and have tried to come back. It’s going to happen more times than not.
“Aging is not fun. Early on in my career I thought it was fantastic because I was getting better and better and better, and now I’m just trying to hold on.”
Starting on the 10th hole, Woods was able to shake off missing a three-foot birdie putt on the par-5 11th hole by sticking his tee shot on the par-3 12th to two-feet. He knocked that in to be two under for the tournament and seemingly ready to make a move into serious contention.
But instead of kicking ahead, Woods immediately started to retreat backwards. A three-putt bogey on the 13th was followed by a sloppy bogey on the par-5 16th and another on the par-4 17th when trouble in the rough plagued him throughout the hole.
The birdie looks he had on 14, 15 and 18 wouldn’t drop to offset the mistakes leaving Woods making the turn two-over.
Then things got even rougher.
Woods missed the par-4 first green short and left leaving a tough lie for his chip shot. His attempt came out hot and ran into a bunker from which he was unable to get up and down. The double bogey was compounded by a bogey on the following hole when his tee shot sailed right and fell near a creek bed.
Another bogey on the par-4 sixth seemingly put an end to his weekend chances, but Woods refused to give in. He birdied the par-5 eighth and then holed a 19-foot, 11-inch birdie putt on the par-3 eighth to claw his way back.
A wayward tee ball on his final hole forced a pitch out and wedge approach before a clutch seven-foot par putt found the cup allowing a modicum of hope.
“I finished birdie-birdie-par. That’s about the only positive to it today,” Woods said.
“I three-putted two holes early, and whatever kind of momentum I was going to create, I stifled that early and fought it the rest of the day.”
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Source: PGA tour
