Woods win must come from charge
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If Tiger Woods wins his fifth green jacket, he will do so with his biggest weekend charge at the Masters Tournament.
Woods enters today's third round trailing co-leaders Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell by seven shots. His largest deficit after the first two rounds before rallying for victory was in 2005, when he trailed Chris DiMarco by six shots at Augusta National Golf Club. He beat DiMarco on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to claim his most recent Masters win.
After a fairly nondescript round Friday in which he shot an uneven even-par 72, Woods' answers to questions about his play fell into the monosyllabic category.
Was it a tough day, Tiger?
"Yeah," he answered.
Are you frustrated with your game and yourself?
"Yeah," came the reply.
He once again put the blame on his putting, saying as he did after Thursday's opening 70 that he left a lot of shots out on the course. Woods missed reasonable birdie putts on at least five holes. He had only three birdies Friday - on Nos. 6, 8 and 15 - and they were offset by bogeys on Nos. 7, 9 and 18.
The stats bear out his concern about the flat stick. Among the 96 players at this year's Masters, Woods ranked near the bottom, tied with seven others for 72nd.
"I got to play a bit better than I am," Woods said. "Make a few more putts and clean up the round. I made a few more putts today but still didn't make enough."
Stewart Cink, who played with Woods the first two rounds, said he expects the four-time champion to be in the hunt come Sunday.
"He could be quite a bit lower than he is. He's made a couple mistakes that he normally wouldn't make, but everybody is," Cink said. "The golf course does that to you sometimes out here. He'll be OK. He'll get a run going and I'm sure he'll be in contention again."
Woods also said he believes a fifth Masters win is still within his grasp. His answer, when asked whether coming back from seven shots is doable: "Yeah."
Reach Mike Wynn at (706) 823-3218 or mike.wynn@augustachronicle.com.
| 2nd Round | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Out | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | In | Tot |
| Par | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 36 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 36 | 72 |
| Rnd | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 36 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 36 | 72 |
| Tot | -2 | -2 | -2 | -2 | -2 | -3 | -2 | -3 | -2 | -2 | -2 | -2 | -2 | -2 | -2 | -3 | -3 | -3 | -2 | -2 | -2 |
| 1st Round | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Out | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | In | Tot |
| Par | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 36 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 36 | 72 |
| Rnd | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 36 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 34 | 70 |
| Tot | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | -2 | -3 | -3 | -3 | -2 | -2 | -2 |
