Tiger Woods fired a nine-over-par 79 in Saturday’s third round of the PGA Championship.
It is the worst round of his incredible comeback from severe leg injuries.
Woods made five consecutive bogeys at a Major for the first time in his career from the 9th through 13th holes and stood on 12 over 222 after 54 holes at rain-hit Southern Hills.
The 15-time Major champion, who suffered severe right-leg damage in a February 2021 car crash, shared next-to-last place among the 79 players who made the cut – 21 strokes off the pace.
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American Will Zalatoris led on nine under by a stroke over Chile’s Mito Pereira, making only his second Major start, as they waited to tee off in the afternoon’s last group.
A throng of spectators lined every hole to catch a glimpse of Woods, cheering him around the course despite the woes in one of the worst rounds of his career.
Woods fired his worst Major score in the third round of the 2002 Open, struggling to a 10 over 81 in wind and rain at Muirfield.
After Woods spent weeks hospitalised and months unable to walk, he recovered well enough to return only 14 months later at last month’s Masters, sharing 47th and pleased to walk all 72 holes.
But a month after struggling to his worst Masters rounds with weekend 78s at Augusta National, Woods again could not follow the effort to make a cut with solid form.
The former world No 1, now ranked 818th, said after prior rounds his right leg, with limited mobility and strength, has been hurting all week.
He requires ice baths and physical therapy between rounds to enable his right leg – held together by rods, plates, screws and pins – to have the strength to walk the 7,556-yard course.
Woods sank a 13-foot par putt at the 1st hole but found water off the 2nd tee on the way to a bogey, then lipped out a five-foot birdie putt at the 4th.
After another tee-shot splashdown at the 6th, Woods hit into greenside rough and needed three to get down for triple-bogey, then missed a six-foot putt to bogey the 7th.
At 9, Woods embedded a ball in bunker-side grass blasting out of the sand and needed an eight-foot putt to salvage bogey and a six over 41 on the front nine.
That began his run of five bogeys in a row, errant tee shots costing him time and time again.
Woods sank a 36-foot putt at the par-four 15th for his only birdie of the day and closed with three pars to break 80.
© Agence France-Presse
