Tiger Woods has been methodically and patiently taking apart Club de Golf Chapultepec during the first three-and-a-half rounds of the WGC-Mexico Championship.
Laying back off of the tee and letting his irons do the brunt of the work, Woods had climbed the leaderboard into a tie for third midway through his round on Saturday, but a bad second shot into the par-5 15th green began an unraveling that led to something Woods hadn’t done since 2010.
Facing a difficult bunker shot after his approach found a greenside bunker, Woods blasted out to 25 feet from the pin. While it looked like birdie was unlikely, taking par for granted proved to be incorrect as well.
Woods left himself three-and-a-half feet for par then two-and-a-half feet for bogey and finally, a foot for double as he 4-putted the green.
Golf is hard.
Double bogey for Tiger Woods. pic.twitter.com/ZN3Lz1U6mQ
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 23, 2019
According to GolfChannel.com senior researcher Justin Ray, it was the first time Woods has four-putted in a non-major PGA Tour event since 2010 at Quail Hollow. It was also his third 4-putt in the last 13 years.
Things went from bad to worse on the next hole as he attempted to recoup the lost shots on the 15th. Facing a 37-foot birdie putt, Woods again ran the putt well past the hole and failed to make the comebacker for par.
35 putts today for Tiger Woods, but he still shoots 1-under. It’s only the fourth round of his @PGATOUR career in which he had 35+ putts but was still under par. The last instance came at the 2007 U.S. Open.
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) February 23, 2019
Woods finished with a birdie on the par-4 18th hole, but his back nine stumbles dropped him to 6-under par for the tournament and 10 shots back of 54-hole leader Dustin Johnson.
Woods will play his final round alongside Tommy Fleetwood and Louis Oosthuizen. They tee off at 12:34 EST.
