LA JOLLA, Calif. — Tiger Woods insists he’s close.
The results haven’t backed that up through the first two rounds of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, where Woods is 4-under through 36 holes and 11 shots out of the lead held by Justin Rose entering the weekend.
When you watch Woods play, his assertion that he’s close is believable. He’s driving the ball pretty well, with his missed fairways not nearly as errant as they were a year ago. He’s striking his irons well, though his distance control isn’t as sharp as it usually is. And most of his putts look like they’re going to go in … except that they haven’t.
Yet Woods failed to take advantage in his Friday round on the Torrey Pines North Course, which has been playing two shots easier than the South.
Woods, who shot 70 on the more difficult South Course on Thursday and was pleased with the result, knew exactly what he had to do Friday: Go low on the North.
That didn’t happen and now he has a major hill to climb beginning with Saturday’s third round.
“I’m just going to have to shoot something low. … I’m going to have to play a very special weekend to have a chance,’’ he said. “I’m pretty far back.’’
Woods’ round Friday appeared to derail when he caught a buried lie in a greenside bunker on No. 18, which was his ninth hole of the day. He took double-bogey on the hole and never got anything going on his final nine holes.
“I’m disappointed with the fact that I just didn’t make enough birdies,” Woods said. “I made a double-bogey at [18] from the middle of the fairway with an 8-iron, plugged under the lip. I didn’t make any birdies on my back nine. I still had two par 5s and a drivable seventh hole, and I didn’t birdie either one of those three holes coming in. That was a bit frustrating to finish that way.
“I feel like today I played a little bit better than I did [Thursday]. I just didn’t make anything. I hit a lot of good putts that lipped out, that burned the edges. If those putts go in, it’s 5-, 6-under par with not much trouble. I’m hitting good putts. If I just continue hitting good putts, eventually they’ll go in in boatloads.’’
The belief here is Woods is right and that he might just post a low round Saturday once he sees some of those putts drop.
“It’s going to have to be over a course of 36 holes to get myself back in this event,” Woods said. “It’s going to have to be a very low and special weekend to have a chance. The guys like Rosie and Jon [Rahm], a bunch of guys are going low on the South course, which is not easy to do and they’re taking it to it. Hopefully, I can be one of those guys that do it [Saturday].”
Don’t bet against it. It has been proven over time that betting against Woods is bad business.
