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July 18, 2009

Missing a cut in a major by one shot is obviously not the end of the world – but when your name is Tiger Woods it’s certainly big news.

Missing a halfway cut in a major by one shot is obviously not the end of the world – but when your name is Tiger Woods it is certainly big news.
Only once before has it happened to the world number one in his professional career and that was at the 2006 United States Open soon after the death of his father.
Woods followed that early exit by winning the next two he played in and regardless of what happened at Turnberry he will be the favourite for next month’s US PGA Championship at Hazeltine.
Not since 2004 has Woods has gone through a season without a major, but he knows he will have to play better than he did the last two days in Scotland.
“I just made mistakes,” said the American after birdies at the 16th and 17th in his second round proved too little too late.
“Obviously you can’t make mistakes and expect to not only make the cut, but also try and win a championship.
“You have to play clean rounds of golf and I didn’t.”
Asked if it was worst he could remember playing Woods quickly retorted: “It was pretty bad at Winged Foot.”
That was his one previous major missed cut and in that he had two rounds of 76 for a 12-over-par total that was three strokes too many to survive.
This time he shot 71-74 to miss out by one on five over.
The stretch that cost him came around the turn – tough holes at any time, but in wind and rain all the more demanding.
Woods, one under for the day after a superb pitch set up a birdie on the long seventh, bogeyed the next two and then lost his ball off a wild drive down the 456-yard 10th.
That led to a double-bogey six, he dropped another shot two holes later and then had another double on the 13th.
“I was probably going to have to birdie the last four – that’s what I thought,” he added, although in that he was wrong. Three would have done it.
“The wind was blowing pretty good and you just had to hit good shots. But I was struggling there for a little bit – I hit two bad three woods in a row.”
Woods could play next at the Buick Open in Michigan at the end of the month and will return to one of his happiest hunting grounds for the Bridgestone world championship in Akron the following week.
He is a six-time winner at Firestone and that leads into the US PGA in Minnesota. He won that title the last two times he played, missing last year’s event because of his knee surgery.