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AUGUSTA, Ga. — The second round of the 2022 Masters won’t go down as one of Tiger Woods’ legendary performances. The record will show that he took 74 strokes to gingerly step his way around the course. He finished the day at +1 for the week, nine strokes behind leader Scottie Scheffler and out of contention in the minds of everyone but himself.
That’s the thing about numbers, though. They don’t tell the full story. Scorecards come a bit closer. Woods’ was a ransom-note collage of six front-loaded bogeys and four round-saving birdies, a testament to the way he hauled his surgically repaired body around all 7,475 yards of Augusta National Golf Club.
To get the full measure of the day, you needed to watch Woods close-up, watch how he battled the elements and himself, watch how he hung on like a water skier dragged by a cigarette boat. He bogeyed four of the first five holes, obliterating all evidence of his miraculous 1-under Thursday performance. He started the day by touring the bunkers of the first nine, and his putts rolled everywhere but into the hole.
As the bogeys piled up, the cut line loomed in the distance, a waterfall at the end of the river where Woods was clutching a piece of driftwood and trying to stay afloat. The winds swirled around Augusta National, gusting up from the direction of Rae’s Creek as much as 31 miles an hour.
Woods wasn’t the only player having trouble – past Masters champions and multiple-major winners flailed in the wind – but on a day where the clearly ailing Woods needed everything to break his way, nothing did for the first seven holes.
“there were so many things that were not going my way,” Woods said after the round. “It was partly the conditions, and partly me.
And then, because he’s Tiger Woods, he finally began bending the course to his will. Facing a near must-birdie on 8, Woods put his approach to a tap-in distance. Two holes later, he unleashed the finest shot of the week to date, a 208-yard iron that just…
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Source : yahoo
