Tiger Woods' charge ends at No. 17

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Tiger Woods had pushed his way into the top 10 at THE PLAYERS Championship and then disaster struck at the iconic par-3 17th island green on Friday.

The 80-time PGA TOUR winner was three under on his round through seven holes and just two back of the lead when he overcooked his tee shot with a pitching wedge and watched it roll over the back of the green and into the water.

Things would get worse from there for the two-time FedExCup champion.

Woods decided against reteeing and headed to the drop zone.

His first attempt from the shame circle took one bounce and again found a watery grave before his fifth shot found the putting surface.

“I figured I can handle an 80-yard shot and obviously I can't,” Woods deadpanned when asked why he didn’t just reload from the tee.

Two putts later and Woods had a quadruple bogey seven, his worst ever score on the hole in what is his 69th competitive round at TPC Sawgrass.

The 43-year-old clawed back two shots with birdies over his last 10 holes, posting a 1-under 71 to sit three under for the week.

“I was pretty ticked, no doubt about that,” Woods said of the 17th.

“The first one, I was a bit surprised it went that far. I took something off that wedge and it flew a lot further than I thought."

“It got up in the wind and it just rode it. It kind of flat-lined on me just a little bit."

“The second wedge shot… I hit it too flat.”

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Only once in his career has Woods made a worse score in relation to par – a quintuple bogey nine at the par-4 3rd hole at Muirfield Village in 1997.

This was just the seventh quad of his career and first ever at THE PLAYERS.

Before this week the two-time PLAYERS winner had just four total water balls at the 17th hole.

“Number wise and club wise, it shouldn't be that hard,” Woods said of the 146-yard back pin position.

“But we all know if you land it up on top it's got a good chance of getting out of here. And that's the tricky part… it's just a wedge and you want to get it somewhere up there where you got a chance to make birdie, but you just can't afford to land it too far up on top.”

Despite trailing the leaders by nine shots, Woods says his tilt towards joining Jack Nicklaus as the only three-time PLAYERS champion is still alive.

Temperatures are due to drop, and the wind direction is set to switch from the south to the north.

“As of right now I'm six back, which is definitely doable on this golf course, especially with the weather coming in,” Woods said.

“I'm very happy with the way I've been grinding around this golf course. I've missed a few opportunities to gets up-and-down for birdie. But overall, I think I've putted pretty solidly and other than 17 today, I really haven't done a whole lot wrong."

“I very easily could be up near that lead, there's no way I would be leading, but I would be close enough to that lead, given the weekend and the forecast."

“I just need to go out there and put it together this weekend, because right now literally anybody who makes the cut has got a chance to win this tournament.”