Tiger Woods’ putter betrays him during a brutal third round at the Masters
AUGUSTA, Ga. — The temperature dropped, but the putts would not.
Tiger Woods had a brutal Saturday on the greens of Augusta National, failing to sink the type of putts he routinely made to save par in the opening round.
Woods had four three-putts and a four-putt — his first at the Masters since 2005 — and that doesn’t count the three times he used his putter from off the green.
Woods, who couldn’t help but laugh at his performance, said: “I was hitting too many putts. It was like putting practice. I hit like 1,000 putts out there. … I had absolutely zero feel for the greens, and it showed.”
It was a far cry from his legendary performance 25 years ago when Woods won his first of five green jackets and made it through the entire tournament without a three-putt.
Woods shot a 78 on Saturday with eight pars, three birdies, five bogeys and two double-bogeys — his first two of the week. It was his highest career score in 93 rounds at the Masters.
Persistent winds pushed shots off line and the temperature hovered around 50 degrees, brisk and about 10 degrees cooler than Friday.
Woods opened the day with a three-putt for bogey on the first hole, then got that stroke back with a birdie on No. 2.
On the fifth hole, a rare four-putt resulted in his first double-bogey of the tournament. He would also double No. 18.
He picked up a couple more bogeys over the next six holes, his score ballooning to five over for the tournament.
Timely back-to-back birdies on 12 and 13 ignited the gallery and got Woods back on track.
After his round Friday, he discussed the physical challenge.
“I expected to be sore and not feel my best for sure,” he said. “It’s the combination. I can walk this golf course. I can put on tennis shoes and go for a walk. That’s not a problem, but going ballistically at shots and hitting shot shapes off of uneven lies, that puts a whole new challenge to it.
“It was important for me to come up here and play a couple of weeks ago and test it, see what I could do. I paced myself going into this week. I played Sunday nine, Monday nine. I was going to take Tuesday off regardless of the rain that was coming in. Again, get the feel of the golf course come Wednesday, and let’s go Thursday.”
He’s at seven over and would need to shoot 65 on Sunday to get back to even.
Tiger ends the third round with a nightmare around the green
A roller coaster of a round ended with a gut-wrenching scene around the green for Tiger Woods.
His tee shot was excellent but his second shot overshot the green and into the patrons’ seating area. Chairs were cleared for him to take his third shot, but his chip rolled a good 60 feet past the hole.
He lagged past the hole again, this time only by about 12 feet. He missed right and finished with a double bogey and a 78 — his worst score in 93 career rounds at the Masters.
Tiger will begin the fourth and final round Sunday seven over par after shooting four over on the last three holes.
Tiger bogeys No. 16. Meanwhile, Scottie Scheffler continues to dominate the Masters
Tiger bogeys No. 16. So let’s shift to non-Tiger news ...
Tiger might be No. 1 in the hearts of Masters patrons, but Scottie Scheffler is No. 1 on the leaderboard and No. 1 in the world (in the Official World Golf Ranking).
Not even halfway done with his third round, Scheffler is 11 under par, six shots ahead of second-place Cameron Smith.
Reading putts is clearly more difficult for physically challenged Tiger
Another casualty of Tiger’s physical limitations after back surgery and rehabbing his leg from a car accident 14 months ago: reading putts.
Remember how Tiger used to bend low, grab the bill of his cap with both hands and create a tunnel so he could visualize precisely the path of the ball to the hole?
Then he’d turn, strike the ball and it’d follow that path more often than not.
Now he can’t bend. Not enough to read his putt the way he used to, anyway. More than ever he’s reliant on caddie Joe LaCava to bend help him survey the greens.
Tiger bogeys No. 17 and is five over par for the tournament and 16 shots behind leader Scottie Scheffler
Tiger’s score on No. 15 is 5 shots better than that time he took a 10
Flashback to Tiger’s worst hole in his career at the Masters — a whopping 10 on No. 15.
Here he is again, and with a modicum of momentum, having played the last three holes in two under par.
Tiger’s tee shot on the 550-yard par-five hole drew rave reviews from patrons watching the ball sail down the fairway. His second shot laid up ahead of water guarding the green and his third was a beauty, sticking on the green 10 feet from the hole.
His putt was strong but off line, and he settled for par.
Tiger revs up on the back nine despite physical limitations
Tiger takes some time to warm up, and his scores reflect that.
So far this week, he’s five over par on holes one through five, and two under on holes six through 18.
A scramble par on No. 14 gives him three strong holes in a row.
Back-to-back birdies shift the Tiger narrative again
Back-to-back birdies pull Tiger back to three over par for the tournament and two over on the day.
Following his two on the three-par No. 12, he birdied the five-par No. 13 even though he was disappointed he missed a putt for an eagle.
His hooked his tee shot on No. 14 just off the fairway on the left, a slightly better lie than where he landed Thursday. Just when he seems to be gaining momentum, Tiger puts himself in a painful — literally and figuratively — position.
Birdie on No. 12 gives Tiger a nice momentary rebound
Just when it appeared Tiger might be headed toward an embarrassing Saturday score, he rebounded to birdie the No. 12 three-par hole.
Patrons roared in approval when his putt hit the bottom of the hole. He’d already doffed his cap at the tee box, responding to a warm welcome, so after scooping his ball from the hole, he nodded toward the gallery and held up his club and the ball.
He’s back to four over par for the tournament.
Discomfort is apparent, but cheers keep Tiger grinding through the back nine
Although Masters patrons are still responding to his every shot with loud cheers or groans, Tiger is slowly fading from relevancy as far as the leaderboard is concerned.
His bogey on No.11 pushed him to five over par for the tournament and, given his physical limitations and lack of recent playing repetitions, it’s difficult to envision him making a charge.
A limp favoring his right leg is increasingly noticeable, and the grimaces are more frequent. Still he grinds on, even responding to a standing ovation from patrons at the No. 12 tee by doffing his white Nike cap.
His tee shot was straight and true.
Tiger gets a thumbs-up from Joaquín Niemann
Chile’s Joaquín Niemann is currently tied for 12th at even par today, having made the cut with a 69 and 74 on the first two days.
Niemann, 23, played Thursday and Friday in Tiger’s group, and it was pretty cool for him to be playing alongside a guy he’s idolized throughout his golfing life.
“It was a lot of fun,” Niemann said. “I really enjoyed playing with Tiger. Between the rounds, I was probably not thinking about it, but I know that any time I’m going to look back on these two days, it’s going to look like a really special moment.”
Asked to assess Woods’ game, Niemann said he hit the ball far better on Friday than Thursday: “He looked great. He’s an amazing tee shots, some amazing iron shots. On 10 today he was amazing. So, yeah, he’s still got it.”
Tiger’s caddie looks back at his Masters debut as a 19-year-old amateur in 1995
Everybody talks about Tiger’s 1997 Masters, when he won by 12 strokes and broke 20 records. But that wasn’t his first appearance in the storied tournament. That came two years earlier as a 19-year-old amateur.
I caught up with his caddie from that day, and he had some stories to tell.
Tiger admits to a touch of fatigue, and he expected it
Heading into Thursday’s first round, Tiger Woods’ main concern was walking the up-and-down course and how that fatigue would be on his rebuilt legs.
He doesn’t feel 100%, but he expected to feel that way.
“I expected to be sore and not feel my best for sure,” he said after the second round. “It’s the combination. I can walk this golf course. I can put on tennis shoes and go for a walk. That’s not a problem, but going ballistically at shots and hitting shot shapes off of uneven lies, that puts a whole new challenge to it.
“It was important for me to come up here and play a couple of weeks ago and test it, see what I could do. I paced myself going into this week. I played Sunday nine, Monday nine. I was going to take Tuesday off regardless of the rain that was coming in. Again, get the feel of the golf course come Wednesday, and let’s go Thursday.”
Tiger is plugging along in the third round, notching his second consecutive par at No. 7 after his double bogey on No. 5.
‘Mr. Woods’ declined offer, but for two amateurs the memory is indelible
Amateurs Aaron Jarvis and James Piot both missed the cut, and in fact shot identical rounds of 81 and 74.
But both left Augusta National with a Tiger Woods memory they won’t forget.
Piot, a Michigan State student, got into the Masters by winning the U.S. Amateur. Jarvis got in with a victory at the 2022 Latin America Amateur Championship.
Last Sunday, they played a practice round. They paused at the turn and before they could tee off for their second nine holes, Woods slipped in front of them on No. 10.
“We were getting ready to go on 10 tee, and someone goes, `Hey, Tiger just teed off in front of you.’ Me and Aaron were like, `No way, holy crap.’”
The twosome played 10 as fast as they could, hoping to catch Woods on the green and ask to join him.
“I didn’t have the courage to do it,” Piot said.
But Jarvis did.
“He ran through the trees and was like, `Mr. Woods, Mr. Woods, do you mind if we join you?’”
Woods smiled but declined, politely telling the amateurs he preferred to play alone.
Piot said Jarvis accidentally hit into Woods and caddy Joe LaCava on the 17th green.
“They were still on the green, and [Jarvis] was down in the valley, didn’t see them,” Piot said. “But he went up and talked to them after the round, which was really cool. I kind of just observed from a distance. I was a little afraid. It was really cool though.”
Jarvis agreed.
“It was pretty cool seeing him playing in front of me,” he said. “And after the round I got to talk to him and Joe for 10 minutes or so, and it was just incredible.”
And Jarvis didn’t take the turndown to heart.
“There’s no better ‘no’ from — or better rejection from Tiger Woods, right?” he said.
Four putts on No. 5 result in Tiger’s first double bogey of the week
“Hang in there, bud!”
Tiger Woods needed the encouragement from an anonymous patron after needing four putts on the difficult No. 5 hole, resulting in his first double bogey of the tournament.
His long lag left him a steep downhill second putt that he missed to the left, the ball continuing several feet beyond the hole. He missed again coming back uphill, the ball circling the hole and spitting out.
He’s now had a four-putt and a three-putt in the first five holes.
Thinking his way through each round a challenge for rusty Tiger
Tiger Woods says he’s having to think through his shots a little more after his recovery-forced layoff. It doesn’t come as instinctively as it did when he was playing every day.
“It’s more the feels for distances and shot shapes,” he said. “I don’t have to think so much about, ‘What do I need to do?’ I can just get up there and feel it and play using my hands again instead of just kind of thinking, ‘OK, I need to do this, this, this to hit this shot, right?’
“Normally I just see it, feel it, go hit my number. I haven’t played a lot of tournaments of late, so it’s been a little bit rusty, but I’m starting to come around. I felt good about how I fought back today and got myself — I could have easily kicked myself out of the tournament [Friday], but I kept myself in it.”
Tiger’s tasty chip leads to a second par in a row
A formidable wind at his face transforming a 242-yard par-three hole into a distance challenge met with a 5-wood off the tee, Tiger Woods hooked his shot to the left of the green and behind a bunker.
His chip shot was a thing of beauty, rolling to within two feet of the cup to cement this second par in a row.
Tiger again shows muscle off the tee on No. 3
Tiger caught a break on his tee shot on the par-four third hole, the ball dancing through a fairway bunker and coming to rest nearly 300 yards from the box and 60 yards from the cup.
His second shot again didn’t have enough oomph, however, leaving him with a long uphill putt. Tiger lagged it to within a couple of inches and tapped in for his first par of the day.
Great shot! ... Wait, poor shot. ... Wait, great chip! Tiger birdies No. 2
Start the roller coaster.
Tiger absolutely crushed with his driver on the par-five No. 2 hole, the ball coming to rest 364 yards from the tee and setting up an approach with a five iron.
Oops. He didn’t strike the ball cleanly and left his second shot in a bunker in front of the green.
Wow. His lifted the ball out of the sand with a deft touch, the ball nearly rolling into the hole for an eagle, instead scooting a couple of feet past the hole.
Sunk. Tiger birdies the hole to pull back to even for the day heading to the third hole.
This GIF technically isn’t from today, but it serves the purpose . . .
Tiger starts the first hole with a boom, ends with a whimper and a bogey
Tiger Woods’ tee shot on No. 1 was better than either of the ones he hit on the first two days, traveling 262 yards down the middle of the fairway to throaty cheers.
From 176 yards, Tiger’s second shot strayed right like so many of his approaches Friday. The ball was on the green but the cup was situated on the left side, setting up an undulating, adventurous 51-foot putt.
He didn’t strike it hard enough, the ball petering out a good nine feet from the hole, leading to a three-putt and a bogey to begin his round for the second day in a row.
Silver lining: The easiest hole at Augusta this weekend awaits at No. 2.
Round 3 Masters best bets: Top futures wagers
After a windy second round at Augusta National, 36 holes are in the books for the 2022 Masters and the No. 1 player in the world has played to his ranking. Scottie Scheffler carries a five-stroke lead into Saturday at eight under par (69-67). As if the leaderboard was not indicative enough of Scheffler’s superlative performance, we can go inside the numbers to give even more credence to what a five-shot lead in a major championship looks like:
Scottie Scheffler
1st SG: Tee To Green (+ 4.26)
3rd Greens In Regulation (75%; 27/36 greens hit)
4th SG: Off The Tee (+ 1.44)
5th SG: Putting (+ 1.95)
5th SG: Around The Green (+ 1.44)
6th (tie) Driving Accuracy (82.1%; 23/28 fairways hit)
10th Driving Distance (298.8 yards)
12th SG: Approach (+ 1.40)
Masters winner gets a green jacket. His caddie also gets a piece of history
Augusta businessman Fred Daitch, whose company makes caddie uniforms for the Masters tournament, shows a caddie jumpsuit from 1940.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — It’s the attire of painters, pig farmers and others looking to protect their nicer clothing. But at the world’s most prestigious golf tournament, the immaculate white coveralls worn by caddies are Titleist tuxedos, garments as much a part of the Masters as azaleas in bloom.
Starched, often ill-fitting and uncomfortably warm on muggy days, the outfits are also the coolest thing this side of Elvis when adorned with an Augusta National logo on the right breast pocket and a crisp green nameplate across the shoulders. Walk through a crowd while wearing one and the patrons part in reverence.
“It’s the only outfit that you will complain about and still want to wear more than anything else in the entire world,” said Michael Collins, a former professional caddie who now works as an ESPN golf analyst. “You might complain about putting it on, but you really complain the year you don’t get to put it on.”
In fact, a lesser-known Masters tradition allows that the caddie on the bag of the tournament winner is allowed to hang on to the long-sleeve, zip-up outfit as a keepsake, a sort of green jacket for the carrying class.
Tee times for third round of the Masters on Saturday
Here are Saturday’s tee times for the third round of the 2022 Masters tournament (all times Pacific):
Scottie Scheffler takes five-shot lead as Tiger Woods makes Masters cut
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger Woods proved again Friday that his reconstructed legs can take the punishment of walking Augusta National.
Meanwhile — at least at the midway point — Scottie Scheffler is threatening to run away with the Masters.
On a blustery day when gusting winds pushed golf balls in all sorts of unpredictable directions, Scheffler showed why he’s ranked No. 1 in the world and has won three tournaments in the last six weeks.
While players all around him saw their rounds flutter away in the breeze, Scheffler shot a five-under-par 67 — two strokes better than his outstanding Thursday round — to take a five-shot lead into the weekend. It was a heady performance for a player who, having surveyed the early scores Friday, said he would have been satisfied with an even-par afternoon round.
How to watch and stream the 2022 Masters tournament
CBS takes over on the weekend with coverage of the third and fourth rounds of the Masters. There are online streaming options, too.
TV COVERAGE
Saturday: Noon-4 p.m. PDT (CBS)
Sunday: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. PDT (CBS)
STREAMING
Free on CBSSports.com, CBS Sports App
CBS Sports HQ, the free 24/7 streaming sports news network, will feature live updates and reports on the leaderboard.