LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Friday was a second consecutive day for low scoring in the PGA Championship at Valhalla.
Many players took advantage of the wet conditions with no wind and posted rounds in red figures.
Tiger Woods, the winner of the 2000 PGA at Valhalla, was not one of them.
And because of that, he won’t get the chance to wear his signature Sunday red shirt in the final round.
Woods, who began the second round at 1-over par following his opening-round 72, made a mess of his early second round Friday and took any suspense out of his making the cut.
When play was suspended due to darkness, the cutline was 1-under par. Woods missed it by miles, finishing with a 6-over-par 77 to depart at 7-over.
After a par on the par-5 first hole, Woods took a triple-bogey on No. 2 then, after a bogey on No. 3, he tripled No. 4. The 7-over-par on those three holes doomed him.
“Unfortunately, I hit too many shots,’’ Woods said. “I got off to bad start and … just kept making mistakes and things you can’t do, not just in tournaments but in majors especially. I hung around for most of the day, but unfortunately the damage was done early.’’
Woods, who’s scheduled next to play at the U.S. Open in June at Pinehurst, N.C., said he believes his game will improve “in time.’’
“I need to play more,’’ he said. “Unfortunately, I just haven’t played a whole lot of tournaments, and [there are] 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.
“Physically, 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.’’
To Woods’ credit, after the 7-over-par start through the first four holes, he closed the round by playing the final 14 holes in 1-under par, punctuated with a birdie on the 18th, his final hole of the tournament.
“Just keep fighting,’’ he said. “Keep the pedal on, keep fighting, keep grinding, keep working hard at posting the best score that I can possibly post. That’s all I can do. It’s going to be a lot, but I’m going to fight until the end.’’