Tiger Woods in danger of missing cut at The Players Championship

UPDATE: Tiger buried a must-make birdie putt from nine feet on his final green, putting him back at even-par and juuust inside the cut line at the time.

We knew it would not always be pretty for Tiger Woods this week at The Players Championship, a place that’s not been the friendliest throughout his career. The 14-time major winner is still working out a series of “fresh” swing tweaks under consultant Chris Como and he’s been all over the place with his long game. These first 27 holes have been much of the same we’ve seen from Tiger in the Sean Foley era -- a constant up-and-down grind just to keep the ball in play and stick around even-par.

Woods made the turn on Friday morning with a 1-under 35, which was good enough to get him back to even-par and right on the cut line for the tournament. It was sloppy at times and the old vintage Tiger at other times -- a nice summation of this current version of Woods. He started the day with a fantastic wedge shot at the 11th (his 2nd hole) that set up a short birdie putt.

For all the trouble those wedges gave him earlier in the year -- that looked like an irrecoverable case of the yips -- Woods has had no major issues with his short game. It’s as if that three-month, three-event stretch from December to February never happened.

But Tiger would give that birdie right back with consecutive bogeys to fall well below the cut line and put the pressure on over his final nine holes. The first bogey came when he yanked his drive left and his ball embedded in the pine straw.

At that point, you thought Tiger might just play out the string and try not to post an embarrassing number before heading home for the weekend.

But after two poor tee shots, he suddenly started pounding them down the center. The tee shot at the 14th is maybe the most difficult for him on the entire course, but he hit one of the best drives of the entire field there. He hit similar balls at the 15h and 16th and converted those for birdies to get back to level for the tournament.

The 18th tee shot is another tough one for Tiger, who keeps missing left this week. An enormous lake lines that side of the fairway, and Woods tried to hit a cut that didn’t cut there on Thursday and deposited one in the drink. But again, he poked one in the fairway to set up another chance at a red number. Unfortunately, he completely tugged his approach shot left and had to scramble just to make a par.

That yank left at the 18th carried over after he made the turn, and Woods hit his drive at the 1st tee just 172 yards! It was a similar looking shot to his tee ball on that hole in the first round, but this one barely cleared the ladies tees up ahead.

A 172-yard tee shot on a 423-yard hole is a quick way to make a bogey, and for the second straight day, Woods could not save par after starting in the left trees.

Tiger is 1-over with eight holes to play and the cut line currently at even-par. Based on everything we’ve seen so far, he could post three straight scrambling birdies or tumble the other direction and head back to South Florida by lunchtime on Friday. We know it won’t be smooth but it will be eventful!

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