12 Over Par Doesn’t Begin to Explain It All

This week for the U.S. Open, Tiger Woods showed up, full speed ahead, on his $20-million, 155-foot luxury yacht called “Privacy,” and docked it in a marina on the Long Island Sound in Westchester County.

On Friday, when he missed his first cut at a major since 1996, Woods left town on his private jet. It was the obvious way to go. He chose the speed of air travel over a slow cruise to Florida.

Woods got out of here in a hurry. In fact, it was faster than ever before at a major championship for Woods, breaking his streak of 39 consecutive majors in which he made the cut.

He shot his second consecutive round of 76 and his 12-over-par total of 152 dropped him into a tie for 82nd.

Afterward, Woods finished a brief discussion of the round. If anyone had tried to interpret Woods’ body language, it would have been unprintable. Four armed security guards in light blue shirts surrounded him as he went off in search of lunch. In the locker room, Woods’ area had already been cleared out, almost as if he had never even been there.

For sure, he wasn’t here long. The last time Woods missed a cut at a major was when he was a 20-year-old amateur at the 1996 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills. He equaled Jack Nicklaus’ record of 39 in a row. Woods has made 37 consecutive cuts in majors as a pro and won 10 titles.

Woods said it’s not as if he planned to miss this cut.

“It’s not something you want to have happen,” he said. “I’ve gone, I guess, awhile without missing one. Unfortunately I missed this one, and hopefully I can win the British.”

That’s the British Open, the next major in line for Woods, at Royal Liverpool at Hoylake, England, in July. His next tournament is probably the PGA Tour’s Western Open, July 6 through 9, at Cog Hill Golf and County Club in Lemont, Ill.

Until then, Woods has the opportunity to sift through the papers in a huge what-went-wrong file.

Here’s the first page. Tiger had flat feet this week at Winged Foot.

Most of his problems, but clearly not all of them, occurred right after he placed his ball on the tee. Woods hit three fairways Thursday and four Friday. That means in two days, he missed 21 of the 28 fairways, bad news at any tournament and disastrous at the U.S. Open. In fairways hit, Woods ranked 152nd of the 155 players who made it through 36 holes.

Typical of his plight was the lowlight-reel material he produced with double bogeys at the 14th and 16th holes, which were part of his first nine. At the 458-yard 14th, Woods drove into the right rough, hit his second shot to the right of the green, chunked his chip and three-putted for a six.

He drove the right side of the fairway at the 478-yard 16th and then pulled his second shot. The ball hit some trees and a cart path and caromed into a bunker on the 12th hole of the neighboring East Course. Woods’ third shot flew into a greenside bunker, he splashed out with his fourth shot and two-putted for another six.

It didn’t get much better. After he made the turn, Woods three-putted from the fringe to bogey the fourth, drove into the rough and missed the green to bogey the eighth, drove into the first cut of rough and left his second shot short on his way to bogey the ninth.

And that was that. A bogey-bogey finish isn’t exactly the textbook ending to a Woods round, but that’s what was written this time, when he made a left turn at history and wound up getting lost.

The numbers reflected only a cold reality -- nine bogeys, three double bogeys, three birdies, 21 pars. Woods made no excuses for his performance, refused to second-guess his decision not to come back sooner and play a tournament after his father, Earl, died on May 3, and held no grudges against a very difficult Winged Foot.

“Marginal shots are just going to get killed here, it’s just the nature of this golf course,” Woods said.

It wasn’t such a great day either for defending U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell. His second-round 77 dropped him to 12 over, the same as Woods. But even though he could tell that Woods was in distress, Campbell was impressed that he had even showed up.

“I mean, come on ... he’s human and it’s going to be tough for him to come back,” Campbell said. “Toughest conditions in the world at a major championship, first time coming back after ... nine weeks off, his father passing away. I mean, God, you’ve got to give him credit.”

Woods will be back, but the first order of business was getting out of town, enabling him to finish a chapter in his life, knowing there are going to be others with better endings than this.

And for an instant, there was a hint that Woods might be heading the right way again. It was when someone asked him what was next.

“Practice,” Woods said.