On "Move Day," Woods at his spectacular
best, stubborn worst
By DOUG FERGUSON AP Sports Writer
MAMARONECK, N.Y. (AP) - Tiger Woods can be spectacular.
On a course as punishing as Winged Foot, he can hit a 6-iron
from under the trees 171 yards away to within 12 feet of a tightly
placed pin and make birdie.
Tiger Woods can be stubborn.
At a tournament as important as the PGA Championship, he can
go against conventional wisdom and try to reach the green from
Winged Foot's wicked rough - and pay the price.
Instead of moving into contention in the third round on Saturday,
Woods moved all over the leaderboard.
And when he rolled in a 5-footer to save bogey on the 18th
green, Woods limped off with a 1-over-par 71 that left him seven
strokes behind.
From the way he was walking, it looked like Woods may have
injured his groin on another vicious swing from the rough.
Asked whether he was hurt, Woods replied, "Yeah. I hurt
my ego."
Since he overwhelmed Augusta National to win the Masters by
a record 12 strokes, Woods has been shooting himself out of major
championships.
He had three double bogeys at the U.S. Open by trying to ignore
the rough of Congressional.
At the British Open, he took a triple bogey and a quadruple
bogey out of the gorse at Royal Troon, and added another triple
to the mix from a bunker on the Postage Stamp par-3 eighth hole.
Already through three rounds of the PGA Championship, he has
three double bogeys. That makes 22 strokes lost to par on just
nine holes in the last three majors.
"I did make some mental errors, which cost me a couple
shots," Woods conceded. "But overall, I was very patient."
That portrays a different kind of round than Woods experienced
Saturday.
Every iron he stuck close for an easy birdie was followed by
disaster.
It started on the fourth hole with a drive that wound up near
a pine tree in matted rough. With the branches restricting his
swing, Woods opted against pitching back to the fairway, and a
flat, hard swing advanced the ball only about 20 yards - still
in the rough.
He tried to run the ball up the green, but wound up with an
awkward lie in the bunker and took a double bogey.
The rest of the round was a mix of great shots and ill-advised
ones - irons that nestled around the cup for easy birdies, wild
swings from the rough that eliminated chances to save par.
Still, Woods got back to 2 under - just three off the lead
- with his shot at No. 16, the hole where Phil Mickelson took
triple bogey and Greg Norman had a double-bogey 6.
Woods cut a 6-iron around a row of trees, and the ball hopped
once on a ramp leading to the green, stopping 12 feet away.
"I was just trying to get the ball in front of the green,"
Woods said. "That was just one of those shots that came out
perfect."
Then he played two holes that did not come out that way at
all.
He hit his approach into the rough short of the 17th green,
then skidded his next shot into the rough about pin-high. His
sand wedge traveled a foot, and his putt with a 3-wood rolled
6 feet past. Woods made that one for double bogey.
Woods drove into the rough on the 18th and had one more chance
to do what the leaders have done all week - get the ball back
in the fairway and try to make par.
Instead, he whacked out of the rough into greenside rough and
made bogey.
"It was disappointing to finish the way I did, being right
there and in contention ... and then do something that dumb,"
he said. "That's not what you want to do."
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