Tiger Shoots 1-over 72 to Finish ‘War of Attrition’ Sunday at Genesis Open
Dan Kilbridge, author for Golfweek
Tiger Woods has plenty to feel good about leaving the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club. He just didn’t have the finish he was looking for.
Woods charged up the leaderboard with a 6-under 65 in Round 3, which began Saturday night and included a dizzying stretch of three birdies and an eagle on his first four holes. He completed the third round Sunday morning and had roughly 40 minutes to regroup before heading back to the No. 10 tee box.
Woods was in a groove early with three birdies in seven holes and holed out from the bunker at the par-3 16th for yet another highlight.
That would be Woods’ last birdie of the tournament, and he played his final 10 holes at 4 over to fall out of the top-10. Overall it was an incredibly promising week for Woods and an improvement on a T-20 showing in his season debut at the Farmers Insurance Open.
A 7-hour rain delay Thursday made it a race to the finish, as Woods played 30 holes on Friday, 13 holes Saturday and 29 holes Sunday.
“I definitely felt it today,” Woods said when asked about fatigue. “Energy dropped a little bit. Wind, cold. This was a war of attrition out here.”
Woods was accurate and powerful with the driver for the most part and went long stretches with the irons completely dialed in. He overcame a brutal showing on the greens in the first round, which included four three-putts, and got hot with the putter over the weekend.
Outside of fatigue and early mornings there were no glaring concerns in Woods’ game, and for the most part everything looked a little sharper than it did two weeks ago at Torrey Pines.
Woods said he was looking forward to an off day with no golf on Monday. Then he’s on to this week’s WGC-Mexico Championship in Mexico City for one more tune-up ahead of the upcoming Florida swing.
