Woods hits a speed bump on way to the top

PARAMUS, N.J. - The road back to the top of the world surely was going to be a little bumpy. No way was it going to be as smooth as it had looked for Tiger Woods with his nearly flawless round Thursday.

Sure enough, instead of being in a class by himself Friday, he looked and sounded like just about every other golfer on Earth, saying:

"I just didn't putt well at all."

Just like everyone else who ever has played, Woods left the course shaking his head about the short strokes that prevented his round from being as good as it should have been. He couldn't maintain the giddy roll that had given him a share of the lead Thursday, even though he was in first alone halfway through his Friday round of The Barclays at Ridgewood Country Club.

Then his position and spirits fell when the putts didn't. Woods bogeyed four of his final eight holes, shot 2-over-par 73 and ended the day at 4 under, four strokes behind 22-year-old leader Jason Day, who grew up in Australia idolizing Woods.

"I hit the ball just as good today as I did yesterday," Woods said. "I didn't have the speed at all on the greens. When the greens get this bumpy, you have to hit pure putts, and I wasn't rolling the ball good enough for them to go in."

So it was not an extension of Thursday, when Woods was in the very first morning group and putted on pristine greens. It had been natural to assume that he was moving on with the beginnings of a new swing and a new post-divorce life. But things just don't always flow so easily.

He again made birdie on No. 18 (his ninth hole because he began on the back nine). The large gallery in this first FedEx Cup playoff event roared when he made the 5-foot, 7-inch putt to go 8 under, ahead of the field. But momentum stopped after the turn. Woods bogeyed the par-3 second after a poor chip marked by a photographer's shutter during the downswing. "I flinched," Woods said.

Woods did worse on the 291-yard par-4 fifth, a hole that nine of the top 13 players birdied. Instead of going for the green off the tee, he hit a layup shot, figuring he would have trouble getting close to an up-front pin position. "I trusted my wedge game and unfortunately three-putted," he said, not having to point out that he missed a 21-inch par putt. He missed makeable par putts on Nos. 6 and 9, too.

"If I don't make putts," he said, "I don't make scores."

No one made a score Friday to match the 63 from Kevin Streelman, whose parents grew up in Glen Rock, about 10 minutes from the course.

Phil Mickelson missed the cut at 4 over with a nondescript 74. Despite the fact he is a leading spokesman for Barclays, Mickelson declined interviews, releasing only a bland statement that said in part, "I love Ridgewood . . . I didn't drive the ball very well. I'm still working on it."

So unlike Mickelson, Woods will be a factor this weekend. "If you play well around here and post good numbers, you're going to move up the board," Woods said. "Guys aren't going to be tearing this place apart."

Day, the leader, said he was surprised to see Woods fall to a tie for 14th "because he's Tiger Woods." Then Day added, "Thirty-six holes, there's a lot of golf to go."