AUGUSTA, Ga. – A day after setting a tournament record at the Masters, Tiger Woods posted a personal low.
Clearly hampered after a 23-hole day Friday at Augusta National, Woods slumped to a career-worst 82 Saturday to fall in the standings.
This round was his worst score in a major tournament as a professional. Before Saturday, his previous best at the Masters was 78, shot in consecutive rounds in 2022.
“I didn’t hit or put very well,” Woods said during a brief scrum with reporters. “I didn’t have a very good warm-up session and kept going all day today. Just hit the ball all the places I know I shouldn’t hit it.
It was Woods’ third time shooting at a major in the 1980s, and the first since the 2015 US Open, when he dealt with his first wave of back-related problems. The highest score he ever had at a major came at the 1995 US Open, when he shot an 85 in the second round as an amateur.
Woods’ lower back once again appeared to limit him Saturday as he struggled with his mobility and hit just five fairways and eight greens. When asked if there was a shift or a particular moment that triggered the problem, he replied: “All day.”
He went out in 42, then made five more bogeys on his way home. He finished the third round at 11-over 227, now tied for 52nd.
With a second-round 72 in wind-whipped conditions, Woods was retained at the Masters for a record 24th time in a row, coming off a tie with Fred Couples and Gary Player. But playing in the late and early wave, Woods was scheduled to return early Friday morning to continue his first round and then, after less than an hour’s break, return to the course for the second round in some of the toughest conditions as veterans of Masters can have. reminder.
It was a tall order for a 48-year-old man who already suffered from constant discomfort.
“Oh, yeah,” he said when asked about the toll Friday took on him. “It made.”
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 hasn’t completed four rounds of an official tournament in 14 months, but Woods has vowed to return on Sunday.
“My team will prepare me,” he said. “It will be a long night and a long warm-up session, but we will be ready.”
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