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2020 Memorial Tournament live blog: Follow Tiger Woods’ second round at Muirfield

Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods returned to the PGA Tour with a 71 Thursday in his first competitive round since February.

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Tiger Woods is back at Muirfield Village and after one round has worked his way into position to make the cut. With another solid round Friday, he could certainly contend on the weekend.

After a 4-birdie 71 Thursday, Woods is T18 as he teed it up with Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka for the second day in a row. The trio all played pretty well Thursday, with McIlroy finishing at two under and Koepka at even. They all had an early wake-up call Friday with their 8:17 a.m. tee time, starting on the par-4 10th.

You can follow all of Tiger action below with our live blog.

Memorial Tournament Tiger Woods live blog (3 over)

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9th hole — par-4 (par)

Likely needing a birdie to make the cut, Tiger fans his 3-wood into the trees right of the fairway. Not happy with himself, though he got a decent bounce … It would appear the lie was too brutal to make a go at the green, so. Woods pitched out of the long rough. From 100 yards he tosses his approach beyond the hole and zips it back to seven feet. Probably not going to make the cut this year, folks. Of course he makes the par putt to likely wrap his Memorial at three over with a second round 76. He’ll have to wait and see if it’s good enough for the weekend, but it’s not looking good.

8th hole — par-3 (birdie)

Nothing easy about this hole. Playing 3.2 strokes on average thus far … Tiger hits a solid mid-iron that cuts into the right side of the green and rolls left with the slope. Settles around 19 feet from the hole. Needs to make it! … And he does! Back to three over for the week. Still needs to birdie 9 to give himself a chance.

7th hole — par-5 (birdie)

Tiger pipes his drive on 7 into the fairway. One thing we’ve learned at this course this week: if you don’t do that, you’re in trouble … From 239 yards away, Tiger launches a long-iron high and at the flag, but it falls short and ends up in the greenside trap. Will have a decent chance to get up and down for birdie … TW splashes out and sends a roller toward the hole. Rolls just two feet by — a great shot — and he cleans up the birdie putt. Needs to finish strong for a chance to make the cut.

6th hole — par-4 (bogey)

Tiger blows another drive well right of the fairway — looking incredibly out of sync. He has to lay up short of the water in front of the green. He spins his wedge in to six feet and then shoves the putt right of the hole for yet another bogey. Rory nukes a drive down the center and Brooks finds the left rough. Brooks is forced to pitch out with a gnarly lie and then hits a wedge to around 15 feet, while Rory hits a nice wedge in for a good birdie look. Brooks misses for another bogey and Rory holes his putt for back-to-back 3s.

5th hole — par-5 (par)

Tiger takes fairway wood off the tee and blows it 50 yards right of the fairway, hand coming off the club at impact. His ball settles in the rough up on a hill and he’s forced to lay up. His ensuing wedge is an indifferent approach, leaving about 20 feet up the hill for birdie. He lags it in close and taps in for a disappointing par. Rory finds the fairway and then flags a fairway wood, leaving himself 10 feet for eagle. He holes it to get to 2-under for the tournament. Brooks finds the fairway and then splashes his approach in the water short of the green. His pitch from there skips to the back fringe and he two-putts for bogey.

4th hole — par-3 (par)

Tiger hits fans his tee shot short and right into the greenside bunker. He slashes out to seven feet below the hole. He puts a solid stroke on it and it sneaks in the left side of the hole. Another grindy par on a day when Muirfield Village is playing quite tough. Brooks and Rory both clean up for their pars and they’re on to the 5th.

3rd hole — par-4 (par)

Tiger finds the fairway at the 3rd (first time, long time) and hits a decent approach safely on the green. He has 17 feet left for birdie, and he could really use one of the those right about now. But it’s not meant to be. His putt comes up short and he has to settle for a par. Brooks follows suit with a par, but Rory is able to convert a 9-footer for birdie to move to one under. Tiger remains at four over with six holes to go.

2nd hole — par-4 (bogey)

Another ugly tee shot follows at the 2nd for Tiger. His 5-wood flares right and nearly ends in a creek running down the right side of the hole. Instead, his ball gets stuck in thick rough next to the wet stuff. Koepka and McIlroy find the fairway. Tiger does his best to escape his difficult lie, but hits it across the fairway into the left rough 34 yards from the green. He hits a nice chip shot from there, sticking it close to give himself a good look at par, but he can’t convert it, resulting in ANOTHER bogey. Tiger drops to four over. Koepka and McIlroy make their pars to remain at even for the tournament.

1st hole — par-4 (double bogey)

The opening hole at Muirfield Village is playing 452 yards on Friday, and once again Tiger watches McIlroy launch a drive down the middle of the fairway and then follows with a 5-wood of his own, but this time it ends in the fairway. His approach isn’t a great one. He leaves it short of the green in deep rough and then knocks his next one over the green into a bunker. Tiger’s round won’t be turning around here. He fails to make a long bogey try and is forced to settle with an ugly double bogey. Tiger now sits at three over and is at serious risk of missing the cut.

18th hole — par-4 (par)

Tiger’s increasing difficulties finding the fairway off the tee continued at 17. He pulls 5-wood and watches as it tails away to the right and stops in another fairway bunker 288 yards away. He recovers from there with a beautiful shot into the green that lands beyond the hole and trickles back a few feet. His downhill birdie try from 18″ breaks across the hole and misses on the left. Tiger rolls that in for par to finish of his first nine at one over, as Rory and Brooks save par as well.

17th hole — par-4 (bogey)

Tiger has to watch McIlroy blast a ridiculous 368-yard drive before teeing up his own ball at 17. He clubs down and pokes a decent one that bounces through the fairway and gets a bad kick into a fairway bunker. Tiger has 173 yards to reach the green but he flares it wide right and drops his club in disgust. His ball ends up in deep rough behind and well above the green. Koepka and McIlroy miss the green with their approaches as well, with Rory finding a plugged lie in the face of a bunker. Tiger fails to reach the putting surface with his third, and gets up-and-down from there for bogey. He’s now two over on the round and one over for the tournament, with the early cut line sitting at two over. Koepka and McIlroy follow suit with bogeys of their own.

16th hole — par-3 (par)

Tiger has the best tee shot of the group at the 171-yard par-3 16th hole, just when he needed it most, leaving it hole-high 21 feet away. McIlroy found the back of the green setting up a long birdie try, and Koepka left it long in a bunker. Tiger’s putt starts below the hole and never breaks back as he predicted it would. Tap-in par. Tiger stays at even, while McIlroy makes a ho-hum par and Koepka drops a shot to fall back to even.

15th hole — par-5 (bogey)

Tiger misses far right on his first tee shot today. Worst tee shot of the week thus far. Luckily for him the trees flanking the right side knocked his ball down and kept it in play. Will have to punch out and hope to get up in down if he wants to make birdie.

Tiger punches out from ^^ there and it goes further than he hoped. Still 200+ into the green … Has to swing hard to reach the green and he comes up short. Still 34 yards shy of the hole. TW pitched on to 26 feet, cozied his par-saver down toward the hole … It felt like it might drop but stayed just outside the lip. A very disappointing bogey on the par-5.

14th hole — par-4 (par)

On the short, 340-yard par-4, Tiger, Rory and Koepka all hit irons off the tee. They’ll have short wedges in to a very gettable hole location … and from there Tiger tosses in a smooth one to 14 feet, just left of the hole. Probably exactly where he was aimed with the water right … Unfortunately for him, that putter just isn’t working well this week. Tiger’s 14-footer skirts by three feet. This time he makes the comebacker for par.

13th hole — par-4 (bogey)

Tiger mashes driver on a line that is just too far left. Cannot carry all the way to the fairway, so he’ll be approaching from the rough. Just 136 yards to the hole, though. Tiger hacks it out of the rough and finds the green. Man is a green-hitting machine. Always has been. He’ll have a lengthy putt coming up, but looking at a two-putt par from 37 feet … Tiger gives it a run from there and rolls it on line, just three feet past the hole … but that’s an issue for him. Tiger smashes it on the right edge and it lips out. That’s a bogey.

12th hole — par-3 (birdie)

Downhill par-3 playing 170 yards today. Tiger pulls his 8-iron and flights it precisely how far he needs to. Ball lands on the front edge of the green and kicks forward to pin-high. Three feet away. He won’t be missing this one. Never a doubt. First birdie of the day.

11th hole — par-5 (par)

The 11th played as the second-easiest hole Thursday, but it’s still plenty difficult. Tiger pumps his tee shot up on the left side of the fairway. He’ll have 269 yards in to the green … After laying up Thursday with a chance to go for the green, Tiger goes for it today. He hits a high cut into the right edge of the green. Going to have a long eagle putt — 54 feet — but an eagle putt nonetheless … Tiger lags it to four feet for birdie, which he MISSES. Low side lip-out. Three-putt for TW and a disappointing par.

10th hole — par-4 (par)

The boys get started on the back nine today, which they played in a combined one over Thursday (thanks to Koepka’s bogey). Tiger snaps his first tee shot of the day. Not smooth! Not good!

Woods had to chop his approach out of the rough and it ends up short of the green. But no worries at all for TW. He hits a soft little flop from the fairway to six inches for a tap-in par. No worries!

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