Tiger Woods shot a second-round 77, missing the cut at the PGA Championship by eight strokes. Despite this setback, the 15-time major champion is committed to improving his game for next month’s US Open and suggested he will play more regularly.
Woods, who made two triple bogeys, has now failed to break par in 11 consecutive rounds in majors. In only his third event of the season, the world No. 807 finished 19 shots behind leader Xander Schauffele after 36 holes.
Looking ahead to the US Open on June 13, Woods said: “My game will get better. In time. I need to play more. Unfortunately, I just haven’t played a whole lot of tournaments, and not a whole lot of tournaments on my schedule either. Hopefully, everything will come together in my practice sessions at home and be ready for Pinehurst.”
Woods acknowledged the need to clean up his rounds, emphasizing that he is physically better than he was a month ago but still has room for improvement. “Physically, yes, I am better than I was a month ago. I still have more ways to go, lots of improvement to go physically, and hopefully my team and I can get that done pre-Pinehurst and going into it.”
Woods’ performance deteriorated after a solid start, finishing with a 72 after three-putting on the final two greens of his first round. The challenging weather in Louisville, with persistent heavy rain, added to his difficulties.
His impressive streak without a triple bogey at the US PGA ended on the second hole, where he found himself bouncing from one bunker to another and then three-putting for a seven. Just two holes later, he suffered another triple bogey, losing seven shots over three holes. Despite this, he managed birdies on the seventh and eighth holes, narrowly missing a hole-in-one on the latter with a stunning 190-yard drive. However, more setbacks occurred with dropped shots on the 11th and 12th holes.
An 80-minute delay due to a tragic morning traffic accident disrupted the tournament schedule, but Woods wrapped up his game with a birdie on the final hole, playing the last 14 holes one-under par to finish seven-over par.
Reflecting on his performance, Woods said: “I got off to a bad start and the rough grabbed me at 2. No sand in the bunker as well. Just made a mistake there. I compounded the problem at 4. Just kept making mistakes and things you can’t do, not just in tournaments but in majors especially. I hung around for most of the day but unfortunately, the damage was done early.”
