Tiger Woods has pledged to play better at next month’s US Open after shooting a second round 77 to miss the cut at the US PGA by eight shots.
The 15-time Major champion, who made two triple bogeys, has now failed to break par in 11 consecutive rounds in the Majors. Playing only his third event of the season, the world No. 807 finished his 36 holes a total of 19 shots behind leader Xander Schauffele. He was beaten by 12 of the PGA professionals in the field.
Woods, who next plans to play at the US Open on June 13, said: "My game will get better. In time. I need to play more. Unfortunately, I just haven't played a whole lot of tournaments, and not a whole lot of tournaments on my schedule either. Hopefully everything will somehow come together in my practice sessions at home and be ready for Pinehurst.
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"I need to clean up my rounds. Physically, yes, I am better than I was a month ago. I still have more ways to go, lots of improvement to go physically, and hopefully my team and I can get that done pre-Pinehurst and going into it."
Woods had been one-under after 17 holes in his first round before three-putting his final two greens for a 72. It soon got worse on a day of persistent heavy rain in Louisville. The four-time champion had played through 1,441 holes at the US PGA without a triple bogey, but that ended after he went from greenside bunker to bunker on the second hole and three-putted for a seven.
Two holes later he repeated the feat to drop seven shots in three excruciating holes. The American superstar made birdies on holes seven and eight, and he almost aced the latter with a 190-yard drive. He later dropped shots on holes 11 and 12.
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After all tee times were delayed by 80 minutes by a fatal morning traffic accident, he finished his tournament with a birdie at the last, playing his final 14 holes one-under par. He finished on seven-over par. "I got off to a bad start and the rough grabbed me at 2," he said.
"No sand in the bunker as well. Just made a mistake there. I compounded the problem there at 4. Just kept making mistakes and things you can't do, not just in tournaments but in Majors especially. And I just kept making them. I hung around for most of the day but unfortunately the damage was done early."
In the 2000 US PGA, Woods shot rounds of 66, 67, 70 and 67 to finish on 18-under par before beating Bob May in a thrilling playoff to complete the third leg of his Tiger Slam. Now at the age of 48, he is in talks about becoming the next Ryder Cup captain and is an active member of the PGA Tour Policy Board negotiating a peace deal with the Saudis.
"If you ask any of the player directors, we just don't sleep much," he said. "There's a lot of late nights and zoom calls at odd hours of the night, all throughout the night, and lots of emails to read. These are all things that I signed up for as a player director and ways that I can help, and hopefully I can make that impact and we've done that so far, and hopefully we can make more of an impact."
Woods was also asked about Scottie Scheffler ’s arrest earlier in the day, and the former world No. 1 said: "Unfortunate. That's all I can say. It was an unfortunate incident and I don't know what has played out since then, but hopefully everything works out."
The 1991 US PGA champion John Daly withdrew on Friday due to a thumb injury after shooting a first round 82. Daly, 57, last made the cut in the PGA Championship in 2012 at Kiawah Island.