Woods Loses 5-Stroke Lead, Fails to Repeat

Six-time champion Tiger Woods was driving toward an unprecedented seventh Optimist Junior World Golf championship Friday when he took a wrong turn on the seventh hole at Torrey Pines South.

Defending champion Woods, of Cypress, triple-bogeyed No. 7, triggering a startling turnaround in which Gilberto Morales, 15, of Caracas, Venezuela, turned a five-stroke deficit into a three-shot victory in the boys’ 15-17 division.

Woods, who has won six championships in 10 years (two more than anyone else), recorded a seven on the par-four, 436-yard No. 7, the course’s third-toughest hole. Woods hit his first tee shot out of bounds on No. 7.

After rounds of 68-71-68, Woods soared to a 75 for a 282 total, six under par for the tournament. Morales, who had shot 69-72-71 to trail Woods by five, fired a 67 Friday, the best round of the tournament on the par-72, 6,706-yard course. He finished nine under at 279 for his first title in three trips to the Junior World.

Woods, 16, has experienced disaster holes like this before. But when asked if catastrophe had ever struck while on his way to a tournament victory, he said, “Never.”

“I still had a two-stroke lead,” he added. “It was really no problem. (On No. 8) I just left the putt short and he made his . . . so it was a one-shot lead.”

Then it was no lead, as Woods bogeyed nine and actually bent the shaft of his seven-iron, striking a tree on the follow-through of an approach shot.

Still one back at No. 16, Woods stroked an uphill, sharp right, 25-foot birdie putt that stopped two inches short. Morales then holed a downhill 12-footer.

Said Woods, “That was the whole match.”