Tiger Woods’ first stroke-play event in seven months has gone decently well thus far, but it remains to be seen whether his appearance will stretch into the weekend.
Woods, the player/host at this week’s Genesis Invitational, shot a three-over 74 in his second round at Riviera Country Club on Friday, putting him at one over for the tournament through 36 holes.
On Thursday, Woods birdied the final three holes to shoot a respectable two-under 69, but he wasn’t able to close nearly as well on Friday. He bogeyed three of his last four, including his last two holes, to shoot 74.
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“I did not putt well today, I blocked a lot of putts early and this is probably the highest score I could have shot today,” Woods said. “Probably should have shot probably five or six better than this easily. Just didn’t make the putts early and the middle part of the round when I had those opportunities. And they weren’t very hard putts, I just hit bad putts and obviously had a very bad finish, too.”
At one over, he has a chance of making the cut, but we’ll have to wait and see what the afternoon wave does. The projected cut was even when Woods finished, but there’s a good chance it could move to one over, meaning Woods would get into the weekend on the number.
The Genesis cut consists of the top 65 players plus ties. As of this writing (4 p.m. ET), with the last members of the afternoon wave just starting their second round, Data Golf gives Woods a better than three-in-four chance of making it to the weekend. Per Data Golf, there is a 76.8 percent chance of the cutline moving to one over, a 15.2 percent chance of a cutline at even par, and a 7.9 percent chance of a cutline at two over.
If the cut does move to one over, it would mark Woods’ first weekend round in stroke-play competition since he made the cut at the 2022 PGA Championship last May. He withdrew after his third round that week.
You can follow the final round of the Genesis Invitational here.