Throughout Tiger Woods’ most recent comeback to the PGA Tour, the most stable part of his game has been — ironically, given his supposed struggles with the yips — his short game. While his driver (mainly) and irons (mostly at the Masters) have deserted him at times, he’s cobbled together not only stellar rounds, but impressive tournament finishes thanks to his short game.
In fact, Tiger was the only person on Tour to rank inside the top-10 in both short game strokes gained statistics.
Tiger Woods is currently the only player on the PGA Tour ranked in the top-10 in both strokes gained around the green and strokes gained putting.
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGC) April 30, 2018
That all changed this week at the Wells Fargo Championship. While his short game has been middle-of-the-pack — 56th in the field through two rounds in strokes gained: around the green — it’s been his trusty Scotty Cameron putter that has let him down.
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Woods has missed 58% of his putts from between 4-8 feet and tallied a total of 64 putts through two rounds, his highest total through two rounds in a non-major since the 2006 Arnold Palmer Invitational, according to GolfChannel.com’s stats guru Justin Ray.
However, when he needed it the most, on the 18th green, Woods was able to conjure up enough magic to guarantee himself two more rounds of competitive golf by sinking a 13-foot birdie putt.
First birdie of the day ✅
Enough to play the weekend ✅ https://t.co/PuqEE3w7rI— SwingxSwing (@SwingBySwing) May 4, 2018
Woods cobbled together rounds of 71-73 to make the cut by one at 2-over par. The cutline moved at the end of Friday from 2-over to 3-over because of a missed 4-foot putt for par by Adam Scott on his 18th hole of the day.
So, what’s up with Tiger’s putting?
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“I’ve hit it well enough to be right next to that lead,” Woods said after the round. “And if I can just putt – literally, if I just putt normal, I’m probably 5 or 6 under par. I’ve missed so many putts. Putts I missed yesterday, I was blocking them, trying to hit them the right pace. Today, I was pulling them, trying to hit them harder, try to put more hit in my stroke and release the toe of my putter, and I just wasn’t doing it right today.”
Woods tees off in his third round at 9:40 a.m. alongside Brooks Koepka, whom he has played with in the first two rounds of the tournament already. Both are at 2-over par and nine shots back of 36-hole leader Peter Malnati.
Here are the complete second round highlights.
