Tiger misses secondary cut at Farmers Insurance Open
After a promising start, Tiger Woods couldn’t sustain it Saturday in Round 3 of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla, Calif. A seven-time winner of the tournament, the top-ranked Woods struggled to a 7-over-par 79, tying his second-worst score on the PGA TOUR, and missed the secondary cut for the first time in his career.
Because more than 78 players made the 36-hole cut at even-par 144, a second cut was necessitated after the third round for the low 70 and ties. Tiger posted a 54-hole score of 6-over 222 and tied for 80th. It still counts as a made cut and he gets paid.
Woods’ worst score as a professional came at the 2002 Open Championship at Murifield in Scotland. Conditions were nearly unplayable due to wind and rain as Tiger shot an 81. Last year, he shot 79 in the third round of the Memorial Tournament.
Playing in his first event of 2014 following a six-week layoff, Woods started with rounds of 72-71 at Torrey Pines. An early back nine starter Saturday with Jhonatton Vegas, Tiger bogeyed the par-4 10th hole, then birdied the par-3 11th.
Woods steadied with pars at 12 and 13, but bogeyed the par-4 14th. Once again, he rebounded quickly with a birdie at the par-4 15th. Tiger parred the par-3 16th, then birdied the 442-yard, par-4 17th, where he knocked his approach shot eight feet from the cup and made the putt.
After a nice drive at the 570-yard, par-5 18th, Woods went for the green from 254 yards with a fairway wood but came up short in a fronting pond. After taking a drop, he hit his fourth shot into the back bunker, the ball plugging in the sand. With little green to work with due to the back pin, Tiger blasted 20 feet past the cup and two-putted for a double-bogey to make the turn at 1-over 37.
Things went from bad to worse on his second nine. At the 450-yard, par-4 first hole, Tiger missed the green to the right with his second shot, chipped 30 feet beyond the pin and three-putted, his three-foot bogey putt horseshoeing around the cup for a double-bogey. The last time Woods made back-to-back double-bogeys was in the 2011 PGA Championship.
Woods followed with five-consecutive bogeys. He finally stopped the skid with a six-foot birdie putt at the par-4 seventh, waving his cap to the gallery and bowing after the rough stretch.
After missing the green to the left with his tee shot at the par-3 eighth, Tiger came up short of the putting surface with his second shot from thick rough. But he kept battling, chipping in for par.
At the par-5 ninth, Woods drove into the right rough, hit his second shot into a bunker on the right, 60 yards from the green and then came up just short of the green with his third shot. Tiger semi-chunked his third shot 10 feet short of the pin, but made a nice putt to salvage par.
Woods declined to speak with reporters afterwards but did sign autographs.
Statistically-speaking, it was a tough day. Tiger hit only 7 of 18 greens and 6 of 14 fairways in regulation and used 29 putts.
Woods has traditionally feasted on the par-5s at Torrey Pines, but never got untracked this year. He failed to birdie any of them and played them in a combined 4-over.
Tiger will look to regroup next week on the European Tour at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
