AUGUSTA, Ga. – A day after setting a tournament record at the Masters, Tiger Woods posted his own personal low.
Clearly hampered following a 23-hole day Friday at Augusta National, Woods sank to a career-worst 82 Saturday to tumble down the leaderboard.
The round was his worst score in a major as a pro. Prior to Saturday, his previous high round at the Masters was 78, shot in consecutive rounds in 2022.
“I was not hitting it very good or putting well,” Woods said in a short scrum with reporters. “I didn’t have a very good warmup session, and I kept it going all day today. Just hit the ball in all the places that I know I shouldn’t hit it.”
This was the third time that Woods has shot in the 80s in a major, and the first since the 2015 U.S. Open, when he was dealing with his first wave of back-related issues. The highest score he has ever shot in a major was at the 1995 U.S. Open, when he carded a second-round 85 as an amateur.
Woods’ lower back once again appeared to limit him on Saturday as he struggled with his mobility and hit just five fairways and eight greens. When asked whether there was a particular swing or moment that triggered the issue, he said: “All day.”
He went out in 42, then made five more bogeys coming home. He finished the third round at 11-over 227, now in a tie for 52nd.
With a second-round 72 in wind-whipped conditions, Woods made the cut at the Masters for a record 24th time in a row, moving out of a tie with Fred Couples and Gary Player. But playing in the late-early wave, Woods needed to return early Friday morning to continue his first round and then, after less than an hour break, return to the course for the second round in some of the most difficult conditions that Masters veterans could recall.
It was a tall order for a 48-year-old who was already in constant discomfort.
“Oh, yeah,” he said when asked about the toll that Friday took on him. “It did.”
Saturday marked Woods’ fourth full competitive round of the year, following a withdrawal midway through his second round at the Genesis Invitational in February. He has not completed all four rounds in an official tournament in 14 months, but Woods vowed to return on Sunday.
“My team will get me ready,” he said. “It will be a long night and a long warmup session, but we’ll be ready.”
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