Tiger Woods shot a second round 77 to miss the cut at the PGA Championship by eight shots, but the 15-time major champion has made a pledge.
Tiger Woods has vowed to improve his game for next month’s US Open – and hinted he will play more regularly – after a disappointing second round 77 saw him miss the cut at the US PGA Championship by eight shots.
The 15-time Major champion, who made two triple bogeys, has now failed to break par in 11 consecutive rounds in the Majors.
Playing only his third event of the season, the world No.807 finished his 36 holes a total of 19 shots behind leader Xander Schauffele.
Looking ahead to the US Open on June 13, Woods said: “My game will get better. In time. I need to play more. Unfortunately, I just haven’t played a whole lot of tournaments, and not a whole lot of tournaments on my schedule either.
“Hopefully everything will somehow come together in my practice sessions at home and be ready for Pinehurst.”
Woods added: “I need to clean up my rounds. Physically, yes, I am better than I was a month ago. I still have more ways to go, lots of improvement to go physically, and hopefully my team and I can get that done pre-Pinehurst and going into it.”
The American’s performance took a nosedive after a solid start, finishing with a 72 following three-putts on the final two greens of his first round. The weather in Louisville only added to his woes, as heavy rain persisted throughout the day.
The golf legend’s impressive streak without a triple bogey at the US PGA came to an abrupt halt on the second hole when he found himself bouncing from one bunker to another and then three-putting for a seven.
His troubles didn’t end there; just two holes later, Woods suffered another triple bogey, resulting in a devastating loss of seven shots over three holes.
Despite this, he managed to claw back with birdies on the seventh and eighth holes, narrowly missing a hole-in-one on the latter with a stunning 190-yard drive. However, further setbacks occurred with dropped shots on the 11th and 12th holes.
The tournament schedule was thrown off by an 80-minute delay due to a tragic morning traffic accident, but Woods wrapped up his game with a birdie at the last, playing the final 14 holes one-under par to finish seven-over par.
Reflecting on his performance, Woods lamented: “I got off to a bad start and the rough grabbed me at 2. No sand in the bunker as well. Just made a mistake there. I compounded the problem there at 4.
“Just kept making mistakes and things you can’t do, not just in tournaments but in Majors especially. And I just kept making them. I hung around for most of the day but unfortunately the damage was done early.”
At the 2000 US PGA, Woods scored rounds of 66, 67, 70 and 67 to finish on 18-under par, ultimately defeating Bob May in a riveting playoff sealing the third leg of his Tiger Slam. Currently aged 48, he is in discussions about spearheading the next Ryder Cup team and actively involved with the PGA Tour Policy Board, playing a key role in negotiations with the Saudis.
“If you ask any of the player directors, we just don’t sleep much,” he said. “There’s a lot of late nights and zoom calls at odd hours of the night, all throughout the night, and lots of emails to read.
“These are all things that I signed up for as a player director and ways that I can help, and hopefully I can make that impact and we’ve done that so far, and hopefully we can make more of an impact.”
When queried about Scottie Scheffler ‘s arrest earlier in the day, the former world No. 1 simply said: “Unfortunate. That’s all I can say. It was an unfortunate incident and I don’t know what has played out since then, but hopefully everything works out.”
