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Tiger Woods went from the front page of the leaderboard to being on cut watch in the span of his final six holes on Thursday.

Woods shot an opening 3-over 73 at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, N.Y. Asked if he could take any positives out of a round that did include five birdies, Woods said, “No, but I needed to finish off the round better.”

Tiger Woods can’t keep momentum

Indeed, it was a round that saw the wheels come off late.

The 44-year-old recovered from a 2 over start through five holes to birdie three consecutive holes that put him at 1-under through 11. Woods put himself in position for four straight on the par-5 12th, but his birdie attempt lipped out.

It was mostly downhill from there.

Woods promptly bogeyed the next two holes to drop to 1 over. He recovered a shot with a birdie on No. 16, but quickly lost that with a bogey on No. 17.

Woods flubbed a chip shot on No. 18, sent the next one well past the hole and then missed his bogey attempt. The double-bogey finish left him at 3 over and eight shots behind playing partner Justin Thomas, who carded a 5-under 65.

“It was a bit of ebb and flow to the round today,” Woods said. “I did not finish off the round like I needed to. I made a bunch of putts in the middle part of the round.

“It seemed like most of my drives on the front nine landed in the fairway and ended up in bad spots, and I tried to stay as patient as possible, and unfortunately just did not finish off my round the way I needed to.”



Woods will now need a solid round in the afternoon wave on Friday just to reach the weekend.

“We have a long way to go,” he said. “This is a long marathon of a tournament. There’s a lot of different things that can go on. I just wish I would have finished off my round better.”

–Field Level Media (@FieldLevelMedia)