Tiger Woods Must Improve Putting to Make Cut at Greenbrier Classic

A week after winning the AT&T National, Tiger Woods is struggling to make the cut at the Greenbrier Classic.

The superstar comes into the day tied for 88th place. He is eight strokes behind leader Vijay Singh. With the projected cut around even par, it will be a challenge for Woods merely to advance to the weekend.

Fortunately, he can turn his tournament around if he simply improves his short game.

Throughout the first round, Woods had some outstanding drives. What he lacked in distance, he more than made up for in accuracy. His 71-percent driving accuracy was not the best of the day, but it was good enough to keep the world's No. 4 player in contention.

The problem, however, was a lack of concentration around the green. Woods finished 115th out of 156 competitors with 31 putts in the opening round.

When he was chipping from off the green, he was not putting balls close enough to the pin to finish up-and-downs. When he had medium putts, he could not finish the hole strong. 

While these seem like little details, small putts end up being the difference between winning and losing tournaments.

This has been a problem for Tiger in recent years. The golfer has been slowly improving every aspect of his game to be close to the dominant form the world once knew. However, his ability to read a green has not yet recovered.

Woods has had a very impressive year. His three tournament wins this season should not be taken lightly. Still, the fans will not rest until he returns to the No. 1 spot in the world.

With a combined 12-over at the Masters and U.S. Open, Tiger showed that he is still a ways from attaining that goal.

The good news is that he is close, and with a few tweaks in his short game, he can be back in the hunt at the Greenbrier Classic.

And eventually in the majors.