Friday was a much better day scoring wise for Tiger Woods. With a -3 round of 68 he made the cut and jumped up 46 positions to tie for 40th. He still isn’t hitting fairways and ended up ditching the driver for many driving holes and electing to hit 3-wood. Oddly, most media say he putted better Friday, yet had two more total putts. How can that be? Greens in regulation.
Driving
Tiger’s driving distance increased to 270 from 257, despite going to 3-wood on many of his shots. He only hit 43% of his fairways Friday versus 50% on Thursday. But he was at least able to get himself into position to better hit greens.
Putting
Tiger’s total putts increased from 27 to 29 on Friday. But the crucial stat is the putts per green in regulation, which was greatly improved at 1.643. Add that to the fact that Tiger hit more greens in regulation and that is how he scored so much better.
Greens In Regulation
The most improved stat, and biggest reason for the lower score, is Tiger’s greens in regulation. He jumped from 50% to 78%. Hitting more greens and making less putts per green is the difference and why he made the cut.
Grade
I’m calling yesterday’s round a C-. Not enough to knock him out of the possibility of making the cut. Based on that, I’m calling Friday’s a B+ because it was good enough to make the cut.
Weekend
So Tiger has made the cut and will be around for the weekend. It will be interesting to see if he can climb up the leaderboard or not. After two days he’s a full seven shots behind tournament leader Paul Casey.
HOGWire – Golf Industry News
Tiger I enjoy you enjoying yourself. Play for the joy.