Tiger Woods needs more than just a bogey-free 67 – Golf Feature
Doral Golf Resort and Spa’s Tournament Players Club (TPC) Blue Monster course, which was once considered as one of the hardest golf courses all over the world, is no more hard with the help of technology these days.
In the second round of the second World Golf Championship of the year, Cadillac Championship, a total of 52 players out of 74 went for under par scores.
Tiger Woods, who shot even par score in the opening round, also managed to card a bogey-free round of five-under par 67 to finish seven strokes off the lead set by Bubba Watson at 12-under par overall score.
It was the second bogey-free round registered by Woods in the last three stroke-play rounds, including his eight-under par performance in the final round of the Honda Classic last week.
Yet, his performance at Doral was not enough to regard him as an excellent performer at all.
He missed several birdie putts that could have earned him an even lower score in the round. In total, he made 28 putts in the second round, which is not enough to call it a great round.
According to Woods himself, he could have gone way lower if he could have managed a better performance on the course.
"This is the highest score I could have shot out there today for sure," Woods said disappointedly, even after having a better score compared to opening round. "It could have been pretty low today".
"I don't know, I hit pure putts," Woods continued. "I hit them right on my line, and they were just blipping out. I just have to be committed to what I am doing and continue rolling it, because I am hitting the putts on what I am reading".
While talking about the course, Woods admitted that the bunkers on the course are easily avoidable and long hitters have substantial advantage on the course.
Therefore, as Tiger himself is a long hitter, he should have been lying among the top three positions on the leaderboard after the second round.
However, his inconsistent putting is spoiling his performance in each and every tournament he plays.
When he stunned his opponents with a late charge in the Honda Classic last week, many people started believing that he had recovered from his putting issues.
Yet, he again failed and let down his fans and followers as they expected more than just a bogey-free round from him.
After the first round, he was six strokes behind the leaders, Adam Scott and Jason Dufner.
On the other hand, when he performed even better in the second round, his deficit to the new leader, Bubba Watson, is now at seven strokes, one stroke more than first round.
Therefore, Woods needs to prove his mantle in putting again and repeat last week’s performance to get into contention while entering the final round of the competition.
Many golf experts believe that Woods, who at one time looked to make a comeback after a two-year winless streak, will never be able to do so because of the inconsistency in his performances.
He definitely had some good finishes in the last six months. However, he needs much more to regain his status of the world’s best player.
Scoring a bogey-free round with just five birdies is not enough for Tiger Woods to be pleased about.
He needs to perform like Justin Rose, who carded a total of eight birdies in his bogey-free round, to place second on Friday evening.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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