Tiger Woods’ unlikely bid to play his way into contention for a fifth US PGA Championship came to a watery end in the third round at Southern Hills.
Woods only made the halfway cut with a shot to spare courtesy of playing the final seven holes of his second round in two under, a 69 leaving the 15-time major winner 12 shots off the lead held by Will Zalatoris.
The 46-year-old had nevertheless talked up his chances of making a surge through the field, citing the 63 shot by Bubba Watson on Friday as the kind of score which was possible.
However, after holing from 13 feet to save par on the first, Woods drove into the creek which bisects the second hole and made a bogey five following a penalty drop, before finding more water on the par-three sixth.
Woods then missed the green with his third shot from the drop zone on his way to a triple-bogey six and dropped another shot on the next to slide further down the leaderboard.
It had been, of course, an achievement for Woods to simply make the cut as he did at the Masters, the former world number one suffering severe leg injuries in a car accident in February last year.
Woods concedes he will never play a full tournament schedule again, but is determined to contest as many of the biggest events he can.
“I’m not going to be playing a lot of tournaments going forward,” Woods said after his second round. “They’re going to be the biggest tournaments. I want to be able to play the major championships. I’ve always loved playing them.
“Coming back here to a place that I’ve had success (winning the 2007 US PFA), to play against the best players in the world, that’s what we all want to be able to do.
“Fortunately enough, I’m able to somehow do it. I’ve had a great PT (physical therapy) staff that have put Humpty-Dumpty back together.”
