CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ In his first tournament since his worst career finish as a pro at the Masters last month (a tie for 40th), Tiger Woods is likely to miss the cut at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow on Friday after shooting a 1-over-par 73 in the second round to finish even par for his two-day stay.
Considering Woods’ victory at Bay Hill in March, a win that suggested his game was on the rise and that he was back, this result was startling.
Woods called the feeling he left the course with Friday “frustration,’’ adding, “I finished, what, 12 back of the lead and I’m not playing the weekend where I have a chance to compete for a title. I’ve missed my share of cuts in the past, and they don’t feel good.’’
Woods missing cuts was once rarer than seeing albatrosses in major championships. Now, it seems not even Woods knows what to expect when he tees it up anymore.
This would be just the eighth time since Woods turned pro in 1996 that missed a 36-hole cut, and the first time that he’s done so twice at the same venue or tournament. Woods missed the cut here in 2010, the last time he played here, which was his second tournament after returning from a five-month scandal hiatus.
Woods’ last missed cut came at the 2011 PGA Championship in Atlanta, where he was playing for the second time following a four-month break due to knee and Achilles injuries.
From the 1998 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-am to the 2005 Byron Nelson Championship, Woods did not miss a cut on the PGA Tour, a record 142 consecutive tournaments. Since that time, no player has gone as many as 50 straight tournaments without missing a cut.
In his two rounds, Woods hit only 14-of-28 fairways (he was just 6-of-14 Friday) and he was a pedestrian 26-of-36 in greens in regulation. He had 62 putts, 33 Friday.
Much like he did after the Masters, Woods on Friday lamented about falling into his old Hank Haney habits.
“It all has to do with my setup,’’ he said. “If I get over the golf ball and I feel uncomfortable, I hit it great. It’s just that I get out there and I want to get comfortable and I follow my old stuff and I hit it awful. All the shots I got uncomfortable on, I just said, ‘I’m going to get really uncomfortable and make it feel as bad as it possibly could,’ I striped it.
“I know what I need to do, it’s just I need more reps doing it. Obviously we’ve changed a bunch of different things and every now and again I fall into the same stuff, old stuff. That doesn’t work with a combo platter of old and new.’’
Asked why he’s still uncomfortable after having worked with new swing coach Sean Foley for nearly two years, Woods said, “If you think about it, with Butch (Harmon) it took me two years and with Hank it took me almost two years before old patterns are out. I played really well at the ’97 Masters, and I didn’t really do anything until May of ’99.
“So it takes time to get rid of old patterns. It takes hundreds of thousands if not millions of golf balls, but eventually it comes around. I’ve had my share of successes, and I know it’s coming.’’
Woods’ Friday round was briefly halted by a bizarre lost ball situation on the par-5 fifth hole, which was his 14th hole in the round (he started on 10). Woods hit an errant approach shot left of the green into the trees and no one could find it.
After a surreal-scene search that lasted more than 10 minutes with hundreds of fans milling about the pine straw, a PGA Tour rules official, Mark Russell, was summoned to the area. A fan told him he saw the ball land and Russell allowed Woods a free drop, incredibly with a perfect alley way through the trees to hit to the green.
Woods chipped on but missed the birdie putt.
Geoff Ogilvy, one of Woods’ two playing partners the last two days, was only 50 yards away from the scene when Woods hit and said the ball “got picked up for sure; there couldn’t be any doubt.’’
Russell said, “Based on the evidence there, it looked like to me somebody picked up the ball.’’
“Someone saw the ball bounce and go into that area there, and then they saw people go around the ball where the ball went just looking at that area,’’ Russell said. “People said they saw the ball bounce and go into that area and then people got around and the ball was gone. But nobody had any evidence that they saw the ball picked up. There was no other place the ball could be if it bounced and went in there and they searched for it for quite a while before they called it.
“It was a very unusual situation, but based on all the evidence and the situation it was, looked like to me somebody … where else could the ball have been? It’s a very strange situation.
“Based on the evidence we had, I didn’t see anything else we could do. I think I would have been more wrong telling him he had to go back (and hit again).’’
Woods failed to capitalize on the great bit of fortune and he later missed a four-foot birdie putt on No. 8, his 17th hole, that would have gotten him inside the cut line at the time. On No. 9, his last hole of the tournament, Woods had a long putt for birdie that he left some five feet short _ a fitting end.
Also adding intrigue to Woods’ flameout is the fact that he might never want to play with Webb Simpson.
Simpson, who finished the day at 11-under par, two shots out of the lead, had only played with Woods once before _ at Doral in March when Woods was forced to withdraw in the middle of his final round because of an Achilles injury.
“He just couldn’t quite ever get it going,’’ Simpson said. “I’ve only played with him a few times, so I don’t know his game that well, but he hit a lot of good shots and I think it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he’s playing next week really well.’’
Indeed, Woods’ next event is next week’s Players Championship, there the scrutiny following his unpredictable game will heighten.