Tiger Woods’ 3-over 74 in the second round of the Genesis Invitational put him on the wrong side of the cut line Friday afternoon while the rest of the field was still finishing their rounds.
Following Thursday’s 69, Woods stood at 1-over 143 through two rounds at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. The projected cut line at the time was even par, though there was a chance it could move to 1 over, allowing Woods to play the weekend.
It’s Woods’ first start in a competitive event since the Open Championship last July. He has played sparingly since injuring his right leg and foot in a single-car accident in Los Angeles two days after the 2021 Genesis.
“I did not putt well today,” said Woods, who’s also the tournament host. “I blocked a lot of putts early and this is probably the highest score I could have shot today. Probably should have shot probably 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.”
He started Friday’s round on the back nine and bogeyed the par-4 12th and 13th holes, including missing a 5-foot par putt at No. 13, before recovering with his best shot of the day at the par-3 14th. His tee shot bounced on the front of the green and rolled to 10 inches of the cup to set up a tap-in birdie.
But his only other birdie of the day came at the par-5 17th, where he escaped a fairway bunker and stuck his third shot inside 3 feet. Woods went on to par the next six holes before bogeying three of his last four.
The par-3 sixth has the unusual feature of a bunker in the middle of the green. After his tee shot landed at the front end of the green, 71 feet from the pin, Woods tried to putt and watched his ball trickle into the bunker.
“I was actually trying to hit … my putt over to where (Justin Thomas) was and the hill caught it more than I thought it would and ended up in a bunker,” Woods said. “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.”
Woods’ was 10 strokes off the pace of leader Keith Mitchell, who was in the clubhouse at 9-under 133.
Woods played the first two rounds with Justin Thomas and Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy. While Thomas shot a second-round 73, he is 1 under through two rounds and more than likely to make the cut. McIlroy, meanwhile, followed Thursday’s 67 with a 69 to get to at 6 under and is three shots behind Mitchell.
–Field Level Media
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