Woods shoots 72 and falls 13 back
AKRON, Ohio - Tiger Woods has discovered something about his game that he never imagined could be a problem. He's hitting it too straight.
AKRON, Ohio - Tiger Woods has discovered something about his game that he never imagined could be a problem.
He's hitting it too straight.
In another pedestrian round Saturday that caused him to lose more ground in the Bridgestone Invitational, Woods didn't hit a fairway until the 11th hole and struggled so much with his putting that associates brought a different putter out to the practice green after a round of 72.
Woods was at 1-over 211, which left him 13 shots behind Adam Scott at the Firestone Country Club.
Woods has noticed a new shape to his tee shots. Instead of playing a fade or a draw off the tee, he's hitting it straighter.
"Still struggling a little bit with my setup and alignments off of tee shots because I used to curve the ball a lot more," he said. "I don't curve the ball as much anymore, and it's kind of hard to trust when I'm out there in tournament play. And most of my shots are missing right on the edges of fairways, so I've just got to get more committed to that.
"I'm hitting the ball straighter," he said. "It's a nice change. But it's still a change."
He missed every fairway on the front nine, and some of them weren't that close. His shot on No. 6 went into the gallery, plunked a fan in the back, and bounced into the rough on the other side of the ropes. Brady Klotz, the college kid he struck, was so excited about being hit that he posed with the glove that Woods signed for him.
Woods picked up two birdies to offset some early mistakes, but finished poorly. A sand wedge for his third shot to the par-5 16th went over the green and into a bunker for a bogey, and he three-putted the 18th for a 72.
Champions Tour
BLAINE, Minn. - Peter Senior shot a bogey-free 67 and John Huston birdied No. 18 for a 68 on Saturday that left them tied for the lead at 12 under after the second round of the 3M Championship.