Early Saturday at Augusta National, there was a small chance the 2024 Masters would see a classic third-round charge from Tiger Woods. Instead, disaster struck, and Woods carded the worst nine-hole score of his Masters career, which included a shocking four-hole stretch that torpedoed his chances .
When Woods began his round, he wasn’t showing any signs of what was to come. The course conditions were tough, with the fairways and greens harder and faster than they’d been all week. Despite that, Woods looked unbothered. He made steady pars on the first three holes, and it started to look like he could end the day closer to the lead than he’d started.
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When he made a bogey at the difficult par-3 4th hole, he bounced back with a birdie at the 5th to get the shot right back. But then his round took a turn for the disastrous.
Woods tee shot at the par-3 6th ended up just off the putting surface, but he was unable to get up and down and dropped a shot. At the par-4 7th, Tiger lost his tee shot to the right, ending up behind a tree and was forced a punch out. His approach shot fell short into a greenside bunker. From there he ran his bunker shot well past the hole and two-putted for his first double bogey of the week.
That dropped him to three over on his round and four over for the tournament. Things wouldn’t get better at the 8th. Woods made an ugly swing off the tee, this time sending his tee shot left into the trees, leading to another punch out.
He fanned his third shot well right of the green, dropping his hand off his club during the follow-through in disgust. His chip left him with a lengthy par putt, which he sent five feet past the hole. Two more putts from there and Woods had made his first-ever double bogey on Augusta’s 8th hole.
The back-to-back doubles pushed his total score to six over for the tournament — but the ugly stretch wasn’t quite over.
Yet another wayward tee shot at 9 led to another bogey, putting him six over in just four holes. After all of that, Woods walked to the 10th tee having shot a 42 on the front nine, which represents his highest score on any nine at Augusta National in his career.
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