Tiger falls further back

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- All day, Tiger Woods' clubs had failed to make solid contact. So on the 16th tee, he tried it the other way around. He made solid contact with his 9-iron.

The shot went short and right, the way most average golfers' poor hits go. He dropped the club and gave it a good, swift kick. That came toward the end of a round in which it was hard to tell which words he had uttered more: "Fore!" or various expletives.

"I didn't quite have it today with my swing," he said after he shot 3-over-par 75 Friday to finish the second round of the Masters at 3 over, tied for 40th place. "I just had to hang in there and be patient."

But his patience did not fare any better than his swing. After he birdied two of the first three holes, his game went south -- he put a ball in the water on No. 13 and dropped a short pitch into a bunker on No. 15 -- and his temper rose to the surface. The peak of pique occurred on the 170-yard, par-3 16th hole.

"Well, it's a simple 9-iron. It's not that hard," he said. "Just a three-quarter 9-iron, hold it against the slope. It's a very easy golf shot, and I hit just a . . . I laid the shaft down and stuck it to the right just like I did on 15."

He insisted that he was "more ticked off" over the 4-iron on the 15th than the 9-iron on the 16th because he could have left it 50 yards left and been fine. Instead, he pushed it right. For Woods, a 5 on a par-5 feels like a bogey.

His solace is in knowing that he is only eight shots out with half a Masters to go, and in recalling that he often has made Saturday charges here. "Anybody can still win the golf tournament if they make the cut," he said. "Guys have won this tournament from five and six back going into the back nine."