Tiger Woods shoots 77, leads notable group of players to miss the cut at PGA Championship

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Tiger Woods is among those who missed the cut at the PGA Championship, unable to take advantage of soft conditions at Valhalla.

Woods’ quest for the weekend ended almost immediately after his second round began. The 15-time major winner made a triple-bogey on the second hole, then made another on the fourth hole. Standing on the fifth tee, Woods was 8 over for the tournament.

"It was a great week being here at Valhalla, and unfortunately my scores did not indicate how the people treated me and how great a week I had," Woods said after his round Friday. "Unfortunately, I hit too many shots."

Wyndham Clark, the fourth-ranked player in the world, also missed the cut, as did Ludvig Åberg, the runner-up in last month's Masters. Clark, who shot 71-75, has now missed the cut in 2024's first two majors after winning last year's U.S. Open. Åberg shot 72-70 after withdrawing from last week's Wells Fargo Championship because of knee pain; he is already the sixth-ranked player in the world in less than a year as a pro. Other big names to miss the cut include Matt Fitzpatrick (69-73), Jon Rahm (70-72), Akshay Bhatia (73-70), Nick Taylor (72-71), Sepp Straka (71-73), Sam Burns (72-73), Adam Scott (72-73), Nick Dunlap (74-73) and two-time PGA Championship winner Phil Mickelson (74-72). Rahm's missed cut snaps a streak of 18 consecutive cuts made in majors.

The cut was made Saturday morning after the second round was delayed 80 minutes by a fatal accident Friday morning. Saturday's resumption was delayed more than two hours because of fog. Seventy-eight players made the cut at 1-under 141, including PGA of America professionals Jeremy Wells (69-71) and Braden Shattuck (71-70). Michael Block, the PGA professional who was the darling of last year's PGA at Oak Hill, missed the cut after shooting 76-73.

Woods’ short game, his saving grace in recent majors, fell by the wayside on Friday. In the greenside rough on the second hole, some 30 yards from the pin, Woods flubbed his pitch into a bunker, then bladed his next shot into another bunker on the other side of the green. A similar story played out on the fourth. Short of the green in two, Woods chunked his pitch into a bunker. He chunked that one, too, and didn’t make it out. By the time he hit it onto the green and two-putted, another 7 was on the card. This was the first round of Woods' PGA TOUR career that he made multiple triple-bogeys. He played his final 14 holes in even-par.

Woods has struggled to withstand the rigors of a professional golf tournament since he severely injured his right leg in a single-car crash in February 2021. Woods has competed in eight events in that span, missing the cut three times and withdrawing three times. When he has made the cut, he’s struggled to replicate the early-week performance on the weekend. Woods made the cut at the Masters in April, then shot 82-77 to finish last among players who completed 72 holes.

"Just keep fighting," Woods said regarding his mindset at Valhalla. "Keep the pedal on, keep fighting, keep grinding, keep working hard at posting the best score that I can possibly post today. That's all I can do. It's going to be a lot, but I'm going to fight until the end."

Woods noted he'll now turn his focus to next month's U.S. Open at Pinehurst Resort, adding: "Hopefully everything will somehow come together in my practice sessions at home and be ready for Pinehurst. ... I need to clean up my rounds. But also – physically, yes, I am better than I was a month ago. I still have more ways to go, lots of improvement to go physically, and hopefully my team and I can get that done pre-Pinehurst and going into it."

Clark was undone by a bogey-double bogey-bogey stretch on Nos. 6-8 on Friday. Clark arrived at the par-4 sixth hole (his 15th of the day) at even-par for the tournament, very much within striking distance of advancing to the weekend, but he missed the green left and couldn’t get up and down. His second shot at the par-5 seventh found a front water hazard en route to a double bogey, and a three-putt bogey at the par-3 eighth sealed his fate.

Tommy Fleetwood made the weekend thanks to some late-in-the-day heroics. The Englishman moved to 1-under after stuffing his approach from 245 yards on the par-5 18th to within 7 feet. He made the eagle putt after the horn blew to finish at 1-under. Fleetwood also birdied the par-4 16th to help rally his tournament hopes.