Poor putting puts Tiger in a hole

Associated Press

SHEBOYGAN, Wis.

Tiger Woods stood, hand on hip, and glared. Yet another putt that refused to drop, yet another birdie opportunity wasted.

After pulling within five strokes of the lead Saturday morning and giving the plod-along PGA Championship some badly needed buzz, all the moves Woods made in the third round were in the wrong direction. He had to close birdie-birdie just to stay even for the day and, at 3-under 213, trails leader Nick Watney by double digits — 10 strokes, to be exact.

“Ironically enough, today I hit the ball better than I did the first two days. I made nothing,” Woods said. “You have to putt. I stuffed it in there early on the first few holes and made nothing, and also had a few other putts on the front nine. No matter how good you hit it, you’ve still got to make putts. I just didn’t do that today.”

The turmoil in Woods’ personal life has spilled over into his golf game, and he arrived at Whistling Straits fresh off the worst performance of his career. He shot a whopping 18-over 298 and beat only one player in the 80-man field at Firestone — and that’s a place where he’s won seven times.

He’s in danger of losing the No. 1 ranking he’s held for a record 270 weeks in a row, and likely needs to finish seventh or better here to earn a spot on the Ryder Cup team.

But there is, he insists, cause for optimism. He made four birdies on the back nine Saturday afternoon, including ones on 17 and 18. And while he’s well behind Watney, “people have shot 50s before this year.”

“Things are starting to solidify, which is good,” Woods said. “That’s what I’m pleased about. It’s not like I’m working on eight different things. It’s just a couple key things, and it feels a lot better.”