Tiger Woods has set himself up to be in the mix entering the final two rounds of the 2022 Masters Tournament this weekend after the five-time champion made the cut Friday.
Woods combined to score a 1-over 145 in the first two rounds, trailing leader Scottie Scheffler by nine shots entering Saturday’s third round. Scheffler has a five-shot lead on the field with 36 holes left. And while Woods isn’t exactly atop the leader board (tied for 19th) the 46-year-old is doing well in his first tournament since suffering a devastating leg injury last February.
Woods, who now has walked 18 holes back-to-back days, was asked how he felt physically after carding a 2-over par 74 Friday.
“Well, I don’t feel as good as I’d like to feel,” Woods said with a laugh, as seen on Masters.com. “But that’s OK. As I said, I got a chance going into the weekend. Hopefully I’ll have one of those light bulb moments and, you know, turn it on on the weekend and get it done.
“You’ve seen guys do it with a chance going to the back nine within five or six going into the back nine,” Woods continued. “I need to get myself there. That’s the key. I need to get myself there and tomorrow’s going to be a big day. It’s going to be cool, it’s going to be tough, again, the wind is supposed to blow again and tough scoring conditions. I need to go out there and handle my business and get into the red and give myself a chance going into that back nine on Sunday.”
Woods started off Friday’s round with four bogies in his first five holes. He was staring down the cut line when he was 3-over with six holes remaining. But then golf’s biggest name bounced back and carded three backside birdies to finish the second round 39-35 — 74.
“It was just the way the golf course was playing today. It was blistery, it was windy, it was swirling all over the place,” Woods said. “I hit a couple shots that I got a couple of bad gusts and also made a couple of bad swings on top of that.
“But hey, I made the cut. I have a chance going into the weekend. It’s going to be cool tomorrow. It’s going to be the golf course that Augusta National wants. It’s going to be quicker, drier, faster. It’ll be a great test.”
Woods will tee off Saturday at 1 p.m. ET. You can check out the complete list of third-round tee times here.
