The leaderboard was coming back to Tiger Woods when he began his second round Friday at Augusta National. It was 1:30 p.m. and Woods was just a few strokes behind the leaders. But five hours later, after a woesome 18 holes, in which Woods shot 75, he now sits 13 shots behind leader Patrick Reed.
Woods’s round began with a pummeled drive that ran 340 yards up the first fairway. What followed was a sloppy approach, an average chip and a two-putt for bogey. The front nine stuck to that script as Woods scraped his way around with made seven pars and a double bogey on the par-4 5th.
Meanwhile, Woods’s playing partner Marc Leishman remained near the top of the leaderboard.
Woods showed only brief flashes of brilliance Friday — one of them came on a sawed-off release approach into the 11th — and his struggles continued on the 12th hole when his tee shot went in Rae’s Creek for the second straight day. Only on 13th hole did Woods finally make a birdie, reaching the green in two and two-putting. He added another birdie on 15, but bogeyed 16.
Despite his disappointing form, Woods made the cut in the limited field invitational, so he will have two more rounds to make a charge at the 2018 Masters.
