Tiger Woods Tied For 65th In Farmers Insurance Open, Makes The Cut On PGA Tour For First Time Since 2015
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- Category: Inside Golf
- Published: 2018-01-27
Tiger Woods Spent A Fair Amount Of Time Eyeing Wayward Drives On Friday But Still Made The Cut On PGA TOUR For First Time Since 2015 - Image Courtesy Flickr
By Alfie Lau
Such is the world of golf that a golfer who hasn’t made a cut since August 2015 at the Wyndham Championship, a spiffy T10 behind winner Davis Love III, is still the biggest news after Round 2 of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego.
Tiger Woods two-putted from more than 80 feet on his final hole on the North Course to make the cut on the number, (-1) after rounds of 72 and 71 on the South and North Course respectively.
It was a long, roller coaster day for Woods, who may have lost his sense of invulnerability, but certainly not his grit and distaste for losing. “It was a grind, I fought hard,” said Woods after his round before thousands of fans. “I just fought hard, that’s something that I’ve done my entire career and this is no different.”
Well, that’s certainly true if you look at some of the challenges Woods had to overcome to post four birdies in his final nine holes to make the cut on the number.
His first nine holes, on the back nine of the North Course at Torrey Pines, look non-descript enough on a scorecard. 8 pars, with just one blemish, a double bogey on the par-4 13th. But the numbers don’t tell the true tale of how far from perfect Woods round was.
Let’s start with three horrific drives.
On the 10th, where Woods, Charley Hoffman and Patrick Reed started their rounds, Woods drive went so far left that it was closer to the 1st fairway of the South Course and the media centre than his own fairway. With Woods getting line of sight relief and a free drop, he had a much better look at the par-5, but he could only get his second out to the right edge of the fairway and then he could only make par on a hole where Hoffman made eagle and Reed made birdie.
That drive may have been bad, but it didn’t cost him strokes, like his wayward drive on 13 did. With barranca all up the left side of that hole – and just two marshalls to look for wayward drives – Woods hit it left of left and all anybody could see was two white hats wandering in the barranca, hopelessly looking for a ball never to be found again. Woods hit an indifferent third shot left of the green and three shots later, it was a big hill to climb.
And then on one of the easiest holes on the North Course, Woods’ wayward drive right on the par-5 17th led to yet another par on a hole most players expect to birdie. Even as his drive on 18 went right, into the gallery, many media wags were joking that Woods needed an inside-the-ropes pass because he was spending so much time outside of them.
But magically, the Woods of old re-appeared on his 10th hole and then again on the par-5 three holes later and once again on his 16th hole, the first time he had gotten himself inside the cut line. Woods couldn’t get too comfortable, as he made one of his worst swings of the day on the par-3 penultimate hole. “I hit it dead off the toe,” said Woods. “I was trying to make my hands go left to make sure I took out the right bunker and I absolutely wiped across it and hit ii dead off the toe.”
The bogey there meant Woods set up a hero situation for himself, reaching his final hole, a 556-yard par 5 in two before lagging his long eagle putt to within 10 inches and a much-needed birdie to see weekend action on the PGA TOUR for the first time in two-and-a-half years.
For Canadian golf fans, four of the six who teed it up on Thursday will be playing on the weekend, led by Ontario’s Ben Silverman and Corey Conners, who both finished at (-4) for the tournament, 7 strokes behind leader Ryan Palmer. Conners, a rookie on the PGA TOUR, isn’t playing like a newbie, having made his eighth straight cut and more than $136,000 in his bank account.
B.C. boys Adam Hadwin and Nick Taylor, both with more than $400,000 in earnings this season already, will also play Torrey South this weekend, with Hadwin’s (-3) and Taylor’s (-1) very credible showings for the Abbotsford boys. Not so lucky were Mac Hughes, at (+1) and David Hearn, at (+7), who won’t have a reason to hang out in La Jolla this weekend.
With Woods set for weekend action, that means every other group not featuring Woods will be largely ignored. And compounding this is the fact the players will go out in a horseshoe, meaning the guys who made the cut on the number will be teeing off from the 10th hole at roughly the same time as the leaders go off the 1st hole.
That means Woods, paired with former champion Brandt Snedeker and South Korean Sung Kang, is teeing off at 10:10 a.m., the exact same time as Phil Mickelson Hunter Mahan and Harris English. Woods’ group follows Abbotsford’s Nick Taylor, who, along with Robert Streb and Julian Suri, will see a lot of fans running about trying to get the best position to see Woods play behind them.
Hadwin is out on South 10 at 8:50 a.m. with Hideki Matsuyama and Charles Howell III, while Conners and Silverman tee off South 1 at 9 and 9:20 respectively.
Sadly lost in the shuffle is the midway leader, Ryan Palmer of Amarillo, TX, who finished eagle-birdie and (-5) on the North Course to go with his (-6) 66 on the South and a one-shot lead over defending champion and winner of last week’s Career Builder Challenge, Spaniard Jon Rahm.
It’s hard not to cheer for Palmer, who has a tangential Canadian connection as a member of Team RBC, the group of golfers RBC sponsors. Palmer is overcoming a move into a new house, shoulder problems and his wife’s battle with cancer, so winning at golf is a bonus for the Texan these days. “A lot of distractions behind me,” said Palmer. “We’re definitely playing a little more free and clear.”
And one more storyline we haven’t really touched in the wake of TigerMania.
World No. 2 Jon Rahm, just one stroke out of the lead, takes over the World No. 1 ranking with a successful defence and win on Sunday.
About The Writer:
Alfie Lau has been a contributor to Inside Golf for several years and is making his annual pilgrimage to Torrey Pines for part of the PGA TOUR's West Coast Swing. He can be reached at www.twitter.com/AlfieLau