AUGUSTA, Ga. — Had it not been for the 15th hole on Friday, Tiger Woods might have been wearing another Green Jacket today.
Woods shot a 2-under-par 70 yesterday to finish at 5-under for the tournament. If not for what happened two days before, Woods likely would have played well enough to get into that playoff featuring Adam Scott and Angel Cabrera.
His first pitch to that green on Friday hit the pin and rolled back in the water. If it didn’t hit the pin, Woods probably would have made birdie. Instead, he had to take a drop, hit again and made bogey.
That’s when he incurred the infamous two-stroke penalty for playing it in the wrong spot. Add it all up and that one hole cost Woods four shots, his distance behind Scott and Cabrera.
“I played well,” Woods said of his performance in the tournament.
“Unfortunately I just didn’t make enough putts and also missed a few shots here and there. I certainly had an opportunity. If I shot 65, I thought I could win it outright.”
Woods, a four-time Masters winner, came to Augusta National as a huge favorite after compiling three wins earlier in the year. But after shooting a 70 on Thursday, he was saddled with a 73 on Friday, thanks to the penalty.
He followed with another 70 on Saturday, and began yesterday four shots off the lead, but never really made a run up the leaderboard.
He said he struggled judging his putts on a day when there was a steady rain.
“I had a hard time getting accustomed to the speed,” he said. “The speed was so much slower than it was [Saturday], and that was before it rained. Then they changed pretty dramatically. I struggled hitting putts hard enough. Every putt I left short, for probably the first eight holes.”
Woods, who won his last Masters in 2005, started poorly yesterday, making bogeys at the par-4 5th and the par-4 7th. But it looked as if he might make a run when a birdie at the 13th hole pushed him to 4-under, four strokes behind Cabrera, who was leading at the time.
Woods reached the par-5 15th in two and had a 25-footer for eagle, but had to settle for birdie. By that time, he was three shots behind leader Jason Day.
Woods missed another opportunity at the 16th, where he had a 12-footer for birdie and missed it to the right. It left him three behind the leaders, a deficit he would take to the 18th, where he settled for par.