When Tiger Woods speaks, golf fans listen, and most of the time you just have to take him at his word. After Woods shot a third-round score of 2-over 72, he summarized his flaws quite succinctly.
“I didn’t make anything early. I missed a couple balls on the wrong sides. The greens are getting crusty and firm. Some poor shots that put myself in bad angles. Again, just like yesterday, I didn’t make any of the putts to get momentum going, to get the round started. I fell behind and had to fight back.”
That’s exactly how it seemed to go for Woods Saturday morning in San Francisco. The 44-year-old waited until the 16th hole to make his first birdie of the day. That came after 11 pars and four bogeys, three of which came during TPC Harding Park’s most difficult stretch on 11, 12 and 13.
Golfers with bad backs, maybe it’s time to switch to a longer putter like Tiger Woods
Woods made 70 feet of putts Saturday, with more than half of that coming on the final four holes. For the second-straight day he said he just didn’t give them enough oomph.
“I definitely didn’t hit them hard enough, that’s for sure,” Woods said. “Again, the putting green is a little bit faster than the golf course, and I made sure I hit a lot of uphill putts to make sure that I try to counter that going out there. I just didn’t trust it. I had a couple putts where I should have hit it a little bit harder, and I didn’t do it, and consequently, the ball died off at the end.”
Despite his strong finish, Woods has likely played himself out of a chance to win the 2020 PGA Championship. His 68-72-72 leaves him at two over and 10 strokes behind Haotong Li. While the leaders may come back closer to his score, he has just 18 holes left and will need a lot of help.
Much has been made of Woods’ putter change this week, from his long-time trusty Scotty Cameron to a newer Scotty blade. It was great on Thursday, when he made 114 feet of putts, but has let him down the last two days. Tiger says he’s going to keep grinding.
“We still have another major championship to play and get ready for the playoffs and we have the U.S. Open after that,” Woods said. “We have some big events to be played, and hopefully tomorrow I can shoot something in the red and get it to under par for the tournament.”