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Woods plays his worst 72 holes on PGA Tour
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-08-09 11:10
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AKRON, Ohio - Tiger Woods has never looked worse.
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Tiger Woods reacts after missing his putt on the 12th hole during the final round of the WGC Bridgestone Invitational golf tournament at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, August 8, 2010. [Photo/Agencies] |
As he has done so often on Sunday at the Bridgestone Invitational, Woods doffed his cap as he walked up toward the 18th green to warm applause from fans who occupied every seat in the grandstand.
Only there was no trophy waiting for him. This sounded more like a sympathy cheer.
The world's No. 1 player looked utterly beaten, and he was.
"Shooting 18-over par is not fun," Woods said. "I don't see how it can be fun shooting 18 over."
He missed one last birdie putt to close with a 77. That gave Woods the highest 72-hole score _ 298 _ of any PGA Tour event he ever played, even as an amateur. It was the first time he shot over par in all four rounds since the 2003 PGA Championship at Oak Hill.
This from a guy who had never finished worse than fifth at Firestone in 11 previous events, who had not shot over par on the South Course since 2006, who last year made PGA Tour history by winning for the seventh time on the same course.
The numbers associated with Woods always have been staggering, now more than ever.
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No one expected him to dominate as he did before revelations of his sexual escapades in November.
No one could have imagined this.
"He's just not the regular Tiger we're used to seeing," said Anthony Kim, who played his first tournament in three months after thumb surgery and beat Woods by two shots. "He's obviously had a lot of stuff going on, and he's dealing with that, and that's obviously more important than golf. Because I think golf is an easy thing to do once your personal life is straightened out. And I'm sure it's going to happen soon for him."
How soon?
Not even Woods knows. Perhaps more troubling for him _ and the PGA Tour _ is he doesn't know how much longer he can play this year. With two tournaments remaining before the FedEx Cup playoffs get under way, Woods is not guaranteed of being in the top 125 to get into the opening event at The Barclays.
CBS Sports, which televises the most weekends on the tour, has not had Woods live on Sunday since the Memorial two months ago.
Woods will slip further down the Ryder Cup standings, and the question is no longer whether he would play as a captain's pick. The question is whether U.S. captain Corey Pavin should even pick him.
He looks like any other player out there. Just watching the shots he hits, someone could question what he's doing on the PGA Tour.
On the par-3 seventh, Woods got the club stuck behind him and caught the ball so fat that he came up 25 yards short, barely getting into the bunker. Worse yet was the 14th. He came up just short into the collar of the rough, about 45 feet short, leaving him a straightforward chip. Woods knocked it 12 feet by the flag, just off the green, putted 5 feet by the hole and took double bogey.
Even in the best of times, Woods has hit bad shots. Everyone does.
But this was amateur stuff.