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AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger Woods is nothing if not persistent. So even when not taking part in his greatest golf, he’ll stubbornly try to supply the perfect mediocre model of himself.
It’s a description that greatest characterizes Woods’s efficiency on the Masters Match on Saturday, when the weather-delayed second spherical was accomplished regardless of a chilly, driving rain.
In the long run, Woods barely made the halfway reduce of the occasion area however he certified to play the ultimate two rounds for a twenty third consecutive time. Woods’s streak of cuts made ties a Masters document shared by Gary Participant and Fred {Couples}. He has by no means missed the Masters reduce since turning skilled in 1996.
“I’ve at all times liked this golf course, and I like taking part in this occasion,” mentioned Woods, whose midway event rating of three over par tied him for forty ninth place. “Clearly I’ve missed a pair Masters with some accidents, however I’ve at all times wished to play right here. I’ve liked it and I’ve received one other likelihood to play on the weekend. I get two extra rounds.”
Brooks Koepka leads the occasion after two rounds at 12 underneath par. Jon Rahm, with a powerful stretch of closing holes, pulled inside two strokes of Koepka coming into the third spherical.
Woods, 47, resumed his second spherical on Saturday at two over par for the event after finishing solely 11 holes earlier than inclement climate suspended play late Friday afternoon.
For Woods, Saturday started inauspiciously simply after 8 a.m. on the treacherous and quick par-3 twelfth gap. He navigated the half that’s normally the toughest when his tee shot landed 4 ft to the proper of the pin. However his quick birdie putt try went nicely left of the outlet with out even touching the rim.
“A horrible putt,” Woods mentioned after his spherical. “I pulled it.”
On the newly lengthened par-5 thirteenth gap, his drive break up the green however his try at laying up on the second shot squirted to the proper and into the gallery. Woods recovered with a deft pitch to 17 ft from the outlet however then left his birdie putt quick — squandering one other birdie alternative.
On the par-4 14th gap, Woods’ strategy shot trundled off the hillside behind the inexperienced. He then chipped uphill to 5 ft and sank a key par putt. On the par-5 fifteenth gap, Woods once more selected to play in need of the inexperienced together with his second shot, and his third shot hit the flag on the fly.
Woods would have been forgiven for considering he was reliving a nightmare. Ten years in the past on the Masters, he hit a shot from an analogous distance on the identical gap that struck the flagstick and ricocheted into the pond that protects the entrance of the inexperienced. He needed to replay the shot and incur a one-stroke penalty. However when Woods made an unlawful drop earlier than his subsequent shot — a violation not detected till the subsequent day — he was almost disqualified from the event. Augusta Nationwide officers as a substitute allowed him to stay within the area after a two-stroke penalty. He completed the occasion in fourth place.
This time, his golf ball rolled backward about 15 ft from the outlet however remained on the inexperienced. His birdie putt trickled into the middle of the outlet and Woods moved to 1 underneath par for the spherical.
“A minimum of it didn’t go within the water this time when it hit the flag,” he mentioned of his third shot to the fifteenth inexperienced. “In order that was good.”
Woods made a routine par on the sixteenth gap, protecting him at one over par for the event. However there was bother lurking on the seventeenth gap. His drive sliced to the proper and his restoration from the pine straw past the tough got here up in need of the inexperienced. Woods’s flop shot over a bunker sailed over the flag and he confronted a 10-foot downhill par putt that by no means reached the outlet and led to his first bogey of the day.
On the 18th gap, Woods’s driver once more failed him as he clipped some tree branches about 100 yards from the tee and as soon as once more discovered himself within the slippery pine straw past Augusta Nationwide’s grassy expanses.
His solely possibility for his second shot was a chip out of bother however in need of the inexperienced. His third shot landed on the placing floor however caught the back-to-front slope of the inexperienced and stopped 35 ft beneath the outlet. With two putts and one other bogey, his second spherical was full at one over par 73.
Woods’s clothes and golf cap had been soaked with rain as he stalked up the rise behind the inexperienced. A substantial gallery sitting beneath umbrellas cheered his exit, however Woods, trying aggravated, didn’t acknowledge the ovation.
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