Tiger Woods’ final hole on Saturday cost him a spot in the last group on Sunday at the Wyndham Championship.
After a booming 350-yard drive right in the middle of the fairway at Sedgefield Country Club’s 18th hole, Woods’ 9-iron approach came up some 45 feet short and left of the hole location. Woods took an aggressive line with the birdie putt to tie Jason Gore, who was in the house and in the lead at 15 under par. The putt went 6 feet by, leaving Woods yet another par tester to play alongside Gore on Sunday afternoon.
The putt lipped out.
The three-putt bogey left Woods with a 2-under 68 and tied for second with Jonas Blixt (62) and Scott Brown (66) at 13-under 197. Instead of a date with Gore, who has played alongside Woods since the two were top-rated junior golfers growing up in California, Woods will play with Brown a group ahead.
The air isn’t completely out of the balloon, but Woods let a lot out with that finish.
Woods’ round was a strange one, looking completely in control at times, including a slew of immediate post-impact club twirls with his tee shots, to on the edge at others, throwing up a number of mediocre mid-iron shots to fairly accessible hole locations. Woods’ mid- and long-range putting wasn’t as deadly as the first two days, while his makes inside 10 feet were more often for par saves than cashing in birdie chances.
As the leaderboard looks on Saturday evening, Woods will need to win to get in the FedEx Cup playoffs. Starting the week at No. 187 in the points standings, Woods conceivably could have jumped into the top 125 and next week’s field at The Barclays with at least a solo second-place finish. However, there are enough players in front of him and doing well enough behind him that a win is going to be the only way to squeak into the PGA Tour’s postseason.
Woods looked tired or somewhat injured or both throughout the round, almost as though he had put all of his energy into the first 36 holes. With it being a win-or-go-home-for-at-least-five-weeks scenario on Sunday, Woods will have to summon whatever energy he has left to put away an 80th PGA Tour win.
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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