Tiger Woods' Quadruple Bogey Leads to 2nd-Round 71 at 2019 Players Championship
March 15, 2019
One bad hole derailed an otherwise excellent performance by Tiger Woods in the second round of the 2019 Players Championship.
Woods went into the clubhouse with a 71 that dropped his 36-hole score to three-under par. Finishing one-under par Friday is misleading because his only problem came on No. 17.
The infamous island green turned into a nightmare for Woods. He hit two shots into the water, righting himself in time to salvage a quadruple-bogey:
That hole completely altered the trajectory Woods was on and added a new chapter to his record book, though one he'd prefer didn't exist:
As noted by the PGA Tour, Woods hit all seven fairways on his first nine holes but settled for making the turn at one-over par:
Per ESPN.com's Bob Harig, the list of players since 2003 who have won a tournament with a quadruple-bogey on their scorecard isn't very long:
"Tiger Woods will have a difficult time overcoming the quadruple-bogey 7 he made at the 17th hole. Winning with a quad on the PGA Tour is quite rare. The last time it happened was at the 2016 Honda Classic won by Adam Scott. Prior to the that, the last two instances were Phil Mickelson winning the 2009 Tour Championship and David Toms capturing the 2003 Wachovia Championship."
If Woods had been able to skip No. 17 altogether, he would've finished five-under par for the day and potentially started Round 3 inside the top 10.
Woods, who started his round on the back nine, stormed out of the gate like he turned the clock back to 2000. He birdied three of his first seven holes, including exorcising a lot of demons at No. 13:
ESPN Stats & Info @ESPNStatsInfoTiger doing Tiger things 👀 It’s just the 2nd time in his career he's birdied No. 13 at THE PLAYERS in back-to-back rounds. The other instance came in the 3rd and 4th rounds back in 2000. And before yesterday, Tiger had gone 13 straight rounds without a birdie on No. 13. 🐯
After the quadruple-bogey, Woods was able to get back on the path he was when the round started. The 43-year-old had two birdies on the front nine to drop his score under par for the day. He missed an eagle on No. 7 by inches:
The second round was much cleaner for Woods than what he did on Thursday, but he had a better score in round one (70). The three-time Players Championship winner was all over the place yesterday, particularly on the back nine with five birdies and three bogeys.
Friday saw Woods hit five birdies and No. 17 was his only hole over par. He hit 88.9 percent of his greens in regulation, an increase of 22 percent from the first round.
There were clear signs of improvement from Woods over the past 24 hours. It speaks to the cruel nature of golf that the results didn't show on the scorecard, but he is heading in the right direction. He's shown no lingering effects from the strained neck that caused him to skip the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week.
Woods still has 36 holes to put himself back in contention this weekend. He is also trying to keep building momentum with the Masters just four weeks away.