‘Gloss wore off very quickly’: Tiger set to barely survive cut despite wild round

Former champion Max Homa fired a four-under-par 68 on Friday to take a one-shot lead in the Genesis Invitational, where Tiger Woods was poised to play the weekend in his return to PGA Tour golf.

Homa’s 10-under-par total of 132 gave him a one-shot lead over third-ranked Spaniard Jon Rahm and Americans Keith Mitchell and Lee Hodges, with Woods 11 strokes adrift in his first tournament since he missed the cut at the British Open.

Woods was one stroke outside the cut line when he finished his round of 74. After sweating out the afternoon his one-over total of 143 had him making the cut on the number, although even that wasn’t quite official since darkness halted play with a handful of players on the course.

It was a disappointing day for the 15-time major champion, who is teeing it up for the first time since the British Open in July as he continues to wrestle with the serious leg injuries suffered in a February 2021 car accident.

“I did not putt well today,” said Woods. “I blocked a lot of putts early and this is probably the highest score I could have shot today.

“(I) probably should have shot five or six better than this, easily.

“I could have easily got off to a very hot start and I did not, and then middle part of the round I could have turned it around a little bit and I did not.”

Woods teed off on 10 and dropped a shot at the 12th, where he was unable to salvage par from a greenside bunker.

He bogeyed 13, where he needed three shots to reach the green and missed a five-footer to save par.

Birdies at 14 and 17 moved him back to even for the day, but he ran into trouble coming home.

At the par-three sixth his tee shot rolled back to the front of the sloped green, 71 feet from the pin. His putt up was pulled into the pot bunker in the middle of the green and he wound up with a bogey.

He was in a fairway bunker at the eight, his shot out barely advancing him and his third shot rolling through the green.

At the ninth he missed the fairway and came up in a greenside bunker. His shot out ran through the green and his chip to remain on the projected cut line lipped out.

At the sixth, Woods said, he opted not to chip because there was “a chance it could actually come back to the front part of the green.

“The hill caught it more than I thought it would and ended up in a bunker,” he said. “I mean, I was trying to give myself a chance at making par and at worst bogey.

“So realistically I had two bad calls on the wind on six and nine and end up costing me two shots there.”

Woods, who reiterated this week that he’s hoping to play all four major championships and a few other tournaments this year as his leg issues continue to limit him, said his injury history means he makes constant adjustments to his mechanics.

“I’ve had so many surgeries that the ankle just keeps changing, the leg keeps changing,” he said. “The shoes keep changing, the socks keep changing. Everything’s a moving target. How much I’m on my feet, how much I’m not, how active I am, how not active, the muscles that are on, they’re off. It’s a moving target all the time.”

Homa, who shared the overnight lead with Mitchell, shook off two front-nine bogeys, notching birdies at the ninth 10th and 11th to power back to the top of the leaderboard.

After saving par from a plugged lie in a bunker at the 12th he rolled in an eight-footer at the 13th to get to 10-under, and was 11-under after a six-foot birdie at 17.

He gave one stroke back at 18 with a bogey in the waning light. “I was really proud that was the first time I’ve been leading after day one and I played a good round of golf,” Homa said. “Whether I was leading or not didn’t really matter, long way to go, but that was cool.”