In his first 18 holes Friday, Tiger Woods hit iron shots like the Tiger Woods of 2000 but couldn’t hole a putt.
In his 12 holes of the second round before darkness stopped play, he finally made some putts but his iron play seemed to get washed away by the intermittent showers that doused the course in the afternoon.
That added to an erratic day for the host of the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club and left him at a precarious one-under par, nine shots behind leaders Justin Thomas and Adam Scott and right on the projected cut line.
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Woods, trying to win this tournament for the first time in 13th tries, shot a one-under par 70 in his opening round, and then was even after 12 holes in the second when play was suspended at 5:26 p.m. He made four bogeys in his last six holes after hitting only six of 12 greens in regulation.
“It wasn’t raining that hard, but it was just spitting enough where it was annoying,” Woods said of play in the afternoon. “And the temperature kept dropping, wind kept picking up. ... There’s some long holes out there.”
Rain washed out much of Thursday’s first round and Friday started with benign weather before the afternoon turned wet, cold and windy. Rain, heavy at times, made playing uncomfortable, but it continued.
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Thomas, playing with Woods, overcame a double-bogey six on the 12th hole of his first round with seven birdies to shoot a five-under 66, and shaved five more strokes off par in the 12 holes he played in the second round.
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J.B. Holmes hugs his son Tucker and wife Erica after winning on the 18th hole the Genesis Open golf tournament at the Riviera Country Club.
(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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Justin Thomas hits above a bunker on the second hole during fourth round of the Genesis Open golf tournament at the Riviera Country Club.
(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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J.B. Holmes, Justin Thomas, and Adam Scott, walk up a hill on the 18th hole during fourth round of the Genesis Open golf tournament at the Riviera Country Club.
(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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J.B. Holmes tries to hit out of a bunker on the seventh hole during fourth round of the Genesis Open golf tournament at the Riviera Country Club.
(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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Tiger Woods tees off at No. 10 during the fourth round of the Genesis Open.
(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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Phil Mickelson tees off at the 10th hole during fourth round of the Genesis Open on Sunday.
(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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J.B. Holmes tees off on the 18th hole during the final round of the Genesis Open on Sunday.
(Ryan Kang / Associated Press)
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Tiger Woods puts at No. 9 during the third round of the Genesis Open on Sunday.
(Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
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J.B. Holmes holds the winner’s trophy on the 18th green after the conclusion of the Genesis Open golf tournament at Riviera Country Club.
(Ryan Kang / Associated Press)
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Tiger Woods watches his tee shot on the 11th hole during his third round of the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Phil Mickelson is greeted by fans as he walks to the practice tee before his third round of the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Adam Scott watches his tee shot on the 2nd hole during his third round of the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club. He birdied the hole.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Jim Furyk chips onto the the second green from a hillside above the green during the third round of the Genesis Open.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Rory McIlroy hits his tee shot on the second hole during his third round of the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Adam Scott putts for eagle on the first green during his third round of the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Co-leader Justin Thomas hits his tee shot on the 2nd hole during his second round of the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Co-leader Adam Scott waits to putt under an umbrella during a downpour on the 16th hole during his second round of the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Co-leader Justin Thomas puts his jacket on his head during a downpour on the 2nd hole during his second round of the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans take selfies as Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas walk by during the second day of the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club on Friday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Rory McIlroy hits out of the green side bunker on the 11th hole during his first round of the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club on Friday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Matt Kuchar hits his tee shot on the 10th hole during his first round of the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club on Friday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Co-leader Justin Thomas hits his approach shot onto the second green during the second day of the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club on Friday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Tiger Woods lines up his putt on the 14th green during the second day of the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club on Friday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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PACIFIC PALISADES, CA - FEBRUARY 15, 2019: Tiger Woods hits his tee shot on the 18th hole during his first round of the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club on Friday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Spectators stand in the rain as they wait for Tiger Woods to tee off on the 18th hole during the second day of the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club on Friday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Tiger Woods waits to hit out of the rough on the 17th hole during the second day of the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club on Friday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Co-leader Justin Thomas chips out of the rough on the 18th hole during the second day of the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club on Friday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Co-leader Jordan Spieth hits out of the rough on the 13th hole during the first round of the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Last year’s winner, Bubba Watson, hits his tee shot on the 15th hole during the first round of the Genesis Open.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Adam Long hits out of the green side bunker on the 9th hole during the first round.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Phil Mickelson hits out of the rough on the 11th hole during the first round.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Fans react as co-leader Jordan Spieth just misses a birdie on the 18th hole during the first round.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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A caddy juggles oranges as he takes refuge in a snack hut with the sign guy during a downpour in the first round.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“I just managed my emotions really well today and tried not to let the weather get to me,” Thomas said.
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Scott, whose 13 victories since turning pro in 2000 don’t include the rain-shortened unofficial win he earned at Riviera in 2005, shot a bogey-free 66 in his first round. He played 11 holes of his second round.
J.B. Holmes is a shot behind at nine under, his opening-round 63 highlighted by a hole in one on the sixth hole. As with many of the players in this field, the bunker in the middle of the green proved to be not one bit distracting, his 8-iron from 147 yards landing about 20 feet past the pin and spinning back into the cup.
“Yeah, it was awesome to see that,” he said.
He picked up one more stroke to par in the nine holes he was able to play of the second round.
Luke List and Jordan Spieth are tied for fourth at seven under.
Spieth is among the 72 players who completed their first rounds early Friday and will return Saturday morning to play their second rounds, after which the cut will be made. The third round will begin in the afternoon.
Twenty-two players are at least four-under par.
Woods, who never got on the course Thursday because of the rain delay, started his first round unevenly Friday. On No. 1, the 506-yard par five everyone in the field considers a must birdie, Woods hit his second shot from the fairway into a bunker, hit his 13-foot birdie putt only about 10 feet and settled for par.
The third hole was an unfortunate harbinger for a player with an unrequited love for this Pacific Palisades layout. He hit his approach shot 63 feet from the hole and three-putted.
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On the seventh hole, he three-putted again, this time from only 17 feet.
Then it appeared the Tiger that fans had lined every fairway to see was back. He put together birdies on Nos. 8, 9, 10 and 11 to get to two-under par before leaving himself 66 feet from the hole on No. 12. That produced another three putt, and when he three-putted from 20 feet on No. 17 for a bogey six, he finished his opening round at one under.
“I hit it well and putted awful,” he said after hitting 17 of 18 greens in regulation and heading back out for his second round.
“Four three-putts is ridiculous.”
After the first round, Woods was 134th out of 144 players in strokes gained putting.
Using an analogy befitting the waterlogged weather that has afflicted the event so far, he said, “I hit just a boatload of bad putts.”
Mike James is a former Sports editor of the Los Angeles Times. A native of suburban Washington, D.C., James came to The Times from the Hartford Courant in 1985, took a hiatus from the print world in 2000 to work as coordinating producer at FoxSports.com and managing editor of the nightly news report on Fox Sports Net. He returned to The Times in 2002 and, after three years as deputy Sports editor, became Sports editor in 2009.
