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Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Writer
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After posting his 11th consecutive round of par or worse in a major championship with a 6-over 77 in the second round of the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club on Friday, Tiger Woods is headed home on the weekend again.
With a 36-hole total of 7-over 149, Woods was well above the projected cut line of 1-under 141. In his past 22 starts in majors, he has missed the cut 10 times and withdrawn twice.
Still, the 15-time major champion says he’s getting stronger from injuries suffered in a car wreck in February 2021 and believes his game will get better as well.
Woods, 48, said he plans to play in the next major, the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina on June 13-16.
“It will — in time,” Woods said of the possibility of his game improving. “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 somehow come together in my practice sessions at home and be ready for Pinehurst.”
The round couldn’t have started much worse for Woods, who made par on the first and then made a mess of the par-4 second. After knocking his drive into the left rough, Woods hit his second shot into the rough and his third into a bunker. Then he skulled a shot across the green and into another bunker, chipped out to 20½ feet and two-putted for a triple-bogey.
After three-putting for a bogey on the par-3 third, Woods recorded his second triple-bogey in three holes on the short par-4 fourth. He was only 75 yards from the hole after his drive — but didn’t reach the green until his fifth shot. His third went into a bunker, and he couldn’t get out of the sand with his fourth. He blasted his ball out and two-putted from 11½ feet. Woods was 7 over after four holes in the round.
It was the first time in Woods’ 1,344 rounds in his PGA Tour career that he had multiple triple-bogeys, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
Coming into Friday, Woods had carded just one triple-bogey in his previous 22 PGA Championship appearances — on the sixth hole in the third round of the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“Well, I got off to a bad start and the rough grabbed me at 2,” Woods said. “No sand in the bunker as well. Just made a mistake there. I compounded the problem there at 4. Just kept making mistakes and things you can’t do, not just in tournaments but in majors especially. And I just kept making them. I hung around for most of the day but unfortunately the damage was done early.”
After that debacle, Woods settled down to card pars on his next two holes. On the par-5 seventh, he chipped to 8 feet and made a birdie putt. The highlight of the round came when he nearly aced the par-3 eighth — his ball stopped 4 inches from the cup for another birdie to move him back to 5 over.
But Woods’ momentum stalled quickly when he carded back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 11 and 12.
After so much damage early in the round, Woods went 1 under over the final 14 holes. He made a birdie on the par-5 18th, after pulling his approach shot into the fans. From 98 feet in the rough, he chipped to 4 feet and made the putt.
“Just keep fighting,” Woods said. “Keep the pedal on, keep fighting, keep grinding, keep working hard at posting the best score that I can possibly post today. That’s all I can do. It’s going to be a lot, but I’m going to fight until the end.”
Woods wasn’t the only star headed home after 36 holes. Reigning U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark (4 over), Phil Mickelson (4 over), Adam Scott (3 over), Sam Burns (3 over), Matt Fitzpatrick (even), Jon Rahm (even) and Ludvig Åberg (even) were also projected to miss the cut.