After his first two rounds at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club put him within sniffing distance of the 36-hole lead, Tiger Woods told those listening that he will win again.
He may, but it won’t be this week or next.
Woods, who played his best golf of the season for the first two rounds of the Quicken Loans National, found nothing but a struggle awaiting him on Saturday. “I never got comfortable,” he said of his pre-round warmup on the range. That uncertain warmup led to a day-long effort to simply avoid bogeys. “Thank God my short game is back,” Woods said. He needed it.
His driver left him in scramble mode for most of the day. He made seven straight pars then bogeyed the par five eighth, a bad omen for what was ahead on the back nine.
Woods found the hazard behind the green on the par three 11th and that led to a double-bogey. Another bad drive led to bogey at the 13th. He fought back with his first birdie of the day at the 15th then nearly made a hole-in-one at the par three 16th. His tee shot came within seven inches of the cup. An ace would have won a $1 million for someone in the Quicken Loans mortgage contest.
Woods hit a wild hook on the final hole and took a penalty. A highlight-reel up-and-down from above the green saved him from a potential double-bogey. His final bogey gave him a 37 coming hole and a 74 that left him at five-under par and tied for 42nd.
“Basically,” Woods summarized, “it was a fight all day.”
Woods need a victory in this event to get him into next week’s WGC Bridgestone at Firestone Country Club, a course he has dominated over the year.
His next tournament will be the PGA and unless he wins there, he may not qualify for the year-end PGA Tour playoffs and Tour Championship.
