Tiger Woods’ game may be back on track, but after losing the 36-hole lead to Zach Johnson on Saturday at the Chevron World Challenge, the soon-to-be 36-year-old still has to prove he can put together four straight strong rounds.
“I’ve hit the ball well, I just need to make a few more putts,” Woods told Golf Channel after posting a 1-over 73. “I’m pleased with the way I’m hitting the golf ball, do doubt.
“I hit good shots,” Woods said. “Unfortunately, I just ended up in bad spots.”
Woods, who’ll turn 36 on December 30 and is looking for his first win since November 2009, picked a particularly inopportune time to find one of those “bad spots,” when his aggressive approach shot to the par-5 16th found the hazard. After deciding to take a drop and the penalty shot rather than attempt a risky play from the rocks, he hit his fourth shot to 20 feet and two-putted for bogey.
While Woods was dropping a stroke to fall to 7-under, Zach Johnson holed his second shot with a 7-iron from 163 yards on 18 to post an eagle and take the lead at 8-under heading into Sunday’s finale. It was Johnson’s second eagle of the round on a day when Woods made some masterful flop shots around the greens but struggled with his putter and couldn’t seem to get much going.
The par-5s, especially, gave Woods fits. “I played the par-5s awful,” said Tiger, who was 2-over on the long holes. “I gave away a ton of shots and…lost the lead.”
After much CSI-like scrutiny over the minor change Woods had made in his putting grip — thanks to tips from good friend Steve Stricker and swing coach Sean Foley — the greens were not kind to the ex-No. 1 on Saturday. While he needed just 27 putts on each of the first two days of play, Woods scuffled around to the tune of 32 short strokes on Saturday, according to Golf Channel analysts.
He is hardly out of it heading into the final round, but this is the second consecutive event in which Woods failed to break par and maintain the midway edge. At last month’s Australian Open, Woods limped in with a third-round 75 (3-over) after firing 68/67 in the first two rounds and ending with another 67.
Indeed, as Golf Channel’s Jason Sobel noted on Twitter, “moving day” has not been kind to Woods this season. His third-round scores: 74, 70, 74, 74, 72, 58, 75, and 73 — for a 72.5 scoring average.
“Movin’ the wrong way,” Sobel tweeted.
As for some of the the other 16 guys in the field, Paul Casey carded his Keegan Bradley continued his lackluster play. The reigning PGA champ has scored three rounds in the 70s (76/75/74) to hold down last place in the limited-field event.
(Emily Kay is a regular contributor to New England Golf Monthly. View all her articles here. You may also follow Kay on Twitter @golfexaminer.)
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