NORTON, Mass. – Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy walked off the 18th green early Saturday afternoon at The Northern Trust and looked like two men glad the day was done.
After all, they had just spent a little less than five hours in all parts of TPC Boston rounds when Woods shot a 2-over 73 and McIlroy a 3-over 74.
So what else do you do after a round that, when it was over, was better than just one player in the field of 70 players over three rounds?
At the practice range? Put green? Well, just go have lunch and forget what just happened.
Woods and McIlroy will be back among the early pairs for Sunday’s final round of the first FedEx Cup playoff event, given that they did very poorly to improve their spots on the Leaderboard.
The inability to find a groove has been a constant theme for both Woods and McIlroy since the resumption of golf after a three-month hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. Woods was tied for 40th at the Memorial and tied for 37th at the PGA Championship. McIlroy has had similar problems; he has just one top-20 finish in six starts, coming in a tie for 11th at the Traveler Championship in late June.
Both will be on the field in next week’s BMW Championship, which takes the top 70 in the FedEx Cup points list. McIlroy is in good shape to go ahead and enter the season-ending Tour Championship; Woods has significant work for him. Only the top 30 will get access to that event; McIlroy finished eighth this week, while Woods finished 49th.
On Friday, after making the cut at No. 3, Woods said he hopes to be one of the players “going out and tearing the course apart” on Saturday. There were likely to be low numbers, seeing Scottie Scheffler’s 59 and leader Dustin Johnson’s 60 in the second round.
And Saturday’s third round, which began for Woods and McIlroy at 8:30 a.m. ET in just the third group out, nearly five hours before Johnson’s tea time, began with such a promise. McIlroy hit his approach on the first hole after 7 feet; Woods’ second finished after 4 feet.
McIlroy made his putt for an opening birdie. Woods missed from short range, setting the tone for a day in which he needed 29 putts. On Saturday, he missed six putts within 10 feet. In the first two rounds he had only missed one.
Meanwhile, McIlroy’s day began to fall apart at the second. He missed the fairway with his ride, but still tried to reach the par-5 in two. His approach hardly diminished the danger short of the green. His pitch hit the bench in front of him, the ball ricocheted straight up into the air and then drummed back into the water. He was forced to walk back to the drop zone at 110 meters away. By the time he was ready, he had a triple 8.
After hitting a solid 10-foot approach on the par-3 third leading to a birdie, McIlroy could not help but laugh at his start of the birdie triathlon bird when he got off the green round.
“Yeah, 3-8-2 is in great area code,” he joked.
However, he was not finished with big numbers. On the sixth, he placed another triple bogey, again put off by a hectic ride and problems with the rough.
But McIlroy was not alone in his troubles. After shooting even-par 36 at the front, Woods carded bogeys at 11, 12 and 14. He, like McIlroy, birded the par-5 18 to put an end to the misery.
After Woods rolled into the 6-foot, caddy Joe LaCava jokingly threw a towel in the air in mock celebration.
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