Tiger Woods grinds to best start of BMW Championship, implodes on back nine

Tiger Woods had his best showing of the week Saturday at the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields, but faded on the back nine.

Weekend Tiger came out to play at Olympia Fields, but he didn’t stick around for long.

It doesn’t look like he’ll stick around for the Tour Championship either.

Tiger Woods had his best start of the week at the BMW Championship, finishing the front nine 2 under after back-to-back birdies on Nos. 3 and 4 and no bogeys for the first time this week. But the optimism surrounding his game dissipated at the turn as the 15-time major champion finished the round with a 2-over 72 after a disastrous trip through No. 17.

On the back nine, Woods struggled to find a fairway and spent most of his time after the turn in the rough, but that was just the appetizer ahead of his descent on the par-4 17th, which he birdied on Friday. Woods was forced to take a drop after his tee shot landed in a small creek surrounded by tall grass to the right of the fairway. His ensuing shots landed him in the far left rough, right greenside rough and then finally on the green where he two-putted for the 10th time on the day. He finished the hole with a triple-bogey 7. He finished with one final par at 18.


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He finished the day with 11 two-putts.

After rounds of 73 and 75, respectively, it was obvious Woods’ competitive juices were flowing Saturday morning on the par-5 first. He found the fairway bunker on his first shot and the greenside bunker with his third, but conjured up some heroics to chip the ball over the bunker and leave himself a 5-footer for par.

Woods carded his first bogey of the day on 10 after finding the rough on his first shot and the front, greenside bunker with his second. He missed a 13-foot, 6-inch downhill putt for par resulting in his first bogey of the week on the par-4 hole.

There is no cut at the BMW Championship so Woods will play Sunday at Olympia Fields in what will most likely be his last showing of the 2019-20 season.

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