For Tiger Woods his 75 on Thursday was the tale of two rounds between last Sunday's round in North Carolina and today in Florida.
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Last week at the Wachovia, Woods shot 69 on his way to victory. During the round he missed five fairways and six greens but only took 28 putts. Key to that round was that he made six putts over 8 feet. Despite that he still shot 38 on the back nine and with a sore body that left him clutching his right knee and stretching his left side and lower back numerous times you had to wonder if he was going to bounce back.
The answer possibly came with his 75 Thursday morning.
Tiger hit the fairway 6 of 14 times and only hit 9 of 18 greens
Scrambling save the day as he got it up and down 7 of the 9 greens he missed. Still the difference from last Sunday and Thursday was putting. He took 31 putts with two, three putts and the only true highlight was a 9 footer at 18 for par. Other than that, the next longest putt made was three, 5 footers.
Now the rare of rarities happened for Woods as he didn't make a single birdie for the day. In 40 previous times around the TPC Sawgrass course for The Players, he had not accomplish that feat before. Matter of fact he has never come close, the least number of under par holes in a round was 2 which he has done five times. On the PGA Tour, it was the first time he didn't make a birdie since the 2003 Masters, were he had a round of 76 with four bogeys. He went on to finish T15th in that event. Since then he has played in 74 events and played 270 rounds and has won $33.5 million dollars.
Today's 75 tied the highest round in his career at the Players, he shot 75 twice in 1999, in the first round in 2004, twice in 2005 and in the final round last year. If you look even closer going back to last year's Players, Tiger has now played his last 56 holes in six over par with just 7 birdies, 12 bogies and two double bogies.
Now as Woods looks forward to his late afternoon tee time on Friday in what is predicted to be windy conditions, it will be a long order for him to think about winning this year. If you look historically at The Players, Hal Sutton's 73 in 1983 is the highest first round by a winner. Another thing not working in Woods favor historically is that his highest first round score in his 55 PGA Tour stroke player victories is a 74 in the 2005 Masters.
Even though Woods has the reputation to accomplish the impossible, all of these facts mean just one thing, Tiger has a big haul ahead of him if he is going to win this week's Players.
