Woods struggles in third round of PGA Championship

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Tiger Woods had reason to wonder if making the cut at the PGA Championship was worth it.

One day after a series of clutch putts and short-game wizardry allowed Woods to reach the weekend at Southern Hills, his third round concluded with another big moment.

He made a 5-foot par putt to break 80.

“I didn't do anything right,” Woods said after signing for a 9-over 79, by two shots his worst score in the PGA Championship. “I didn't hit many good shots. Consequently, I ended up with a pretty high score.”

It wasn't his worst in a major. There was that 81 in the 2002 British Open in the raging wind and bitter cold of Muirfield that ended his hopes for a Grand Slam. He had an 80 at Chambers Bay in the 2015 U.S. Open while recovering from the first of what would be five back surgeries.

This was painful to watch, and not just the sloppy play with wedges and two water balls.

Much like the weekend at the Masters, his first competition since the February 2021 car crash that mangled his right leg, the limp became more pronounced as the day went on.

And the weather — the high 50s, compared with a heat index that approached triple digits earlier in the week — didn't help.

“You feel so sorry for him having to go through this,” said Shaun Norris, the South African who played with Woods before a large gallery, but certainly not the size of the previous two days.

“But then again, you also see the type of person that he is, that he grinds through everything and pushes himself, even all the pain and that,” Norris said. “It’s not easy to see a guy like him have to go through that and struggle like that. He’s swinging it nicely, and I think he’ll be back once he gets back to normal health and sorts out all the problems."

Woo