Tiger can't keep up his momentum
Tiger Woods reacts to a missed putt on the 13th green during the third round of the Masters. (Apr. 9, 2011) Credit: Getty Images
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Because the 18th fairway is so close to the 17th green at Augusta National, Tiger Woods had no choice but to back away from his last approach shot of a long day. It was sort of a step into the unknown, with Woods having to give way to someone else's roar.
He paused for a moment to let the sound subside -- while the gallery at the 17th green celebrated a key birdie by leader Rory McIlroy -- the way so many golfers have had to let a Tiger cheer die down. At the very least it was symbolic.
Woods, though, is much more practical. Symbols do not mean as much to him as putts do, and he just did not make enough of those. Four days after he sat in the media center and admitted that he has cost himself a few Masters by not putting well enough, he did not putt well enough. He shot 2-over par 74, finished the third round of the Masters at 5 under and instead of continuing the Friday surge that had people roaring for him, he quietly dropped into a tie for ninth.
"I swung the club well all day. That wasn't the problem," he said. "I just didn't make anything on the greens."
Just as important, he didn't turn his third round into an extension of his second. Every time Woods has a good day, as he did in shooting a 66 on Friday that included a stretch of seven under par through the final 11 holes, it tempts every onlooker to say that he has completely turned his game around. It looks as though he is all the way back to being the Woods who makes fans get loud and opponents get scared.
Then, as he did in the final round at Pebble Beach and as he did again Saturday, he has a setback. It started with a bogey on the first hole and continued with a putt on the fifth that died on the lip. His Saturday was marked by a missed two-footer on No. 11, the very hole on which he seemed inspired by a par putt on Friday.
"I pulled it, just absolutely pulled it," he said of this one.
He also pushed a three-foot birdie putt on the 15th and finished out a cold day with the putter by missing a five-footer on No. 18 to make bogey.
Woods will start Sunday sev- en shots off McIlroy's lead. He will have to be vintage Woods in order to win. "I'm going to have to put together a good front nine," he said, "and see what happens."
