DUBLIN, Ohio – It was more than avoiding missing the cut for the first time in 18 appearances at the Tiger Woods Memorial Tournament. It was also more than recovering from poor performance in the second round.
Woods wanted to test his back after he got into trouble during Friday’s second round and also play an additional 36 holes after a five-month break from the tour.
He responded by shooting a 1-under-71 in the third round on Saturday.
“Overall, I felt like I was playing well, I was controlling the ball well,” Woods said. “I got a really bad shot at 3, but other than that it was a pretty good and solid day.”
Woods wouldn’t have made the cut if he hadn’t closed the second round with two birdies and a pair. Then he had to wait most of the day to see if the cut line would drop from 2 to 3.
“I was lucky that the cut came back,” he said. “Yesterday I did a little run at the end, and sometimes it looked like it was going to be at 2, but luckily I got in at 3.”
Woods’ body language was drastically different throughout his round on Saturday compared to Friday, when he shot a 4-over-76 after starting to deal with back problems during his warm-up.
On Saturday, there weren’t many grimaces after hitting a shot or seriously missing out on the street like Friday. Woods had 11 of 18 strokes on the fairways and his 140-yard average on approach shots on Saturday was his best tournament in 15 yards.
“I was moving better today and I felt like I did it the first day, and consequently I was able to make passes on the golf ball like I did the first day,” Woods said. “Unfortunately, I didn’t putt today, so I hope I can do a few more tomorrow.”
Woods needs these 36 holes over the weekend because otherwise he would have played just 36 holes of competitive golf since February before the San Francisco PGA Championship in three weeks if he chose not to play 3M next week or FedEx St Jude Invitational in two weeks.
“Well, I think going back to the stream and competing again and playing at this level, I haven’t done that in a long time,” he said. “Playing at home and playing here is very different, and making sure to stay alert and not make silly mistakes and throw the ball in the wrong places or give me bad angles, that’s one of the things about playing competitive golf that’s very different from playing at home “.
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