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We said that if he kept up the putting, the tournament was his to lose.
Well...
He's putting well enough to win, unfortunately, he's not hitting ball well enough to win.
On the front nine he had two three putts, which both led to bogeys. Both of the par putts he missed on the front were short, ~4 footers.
If it weren't for those three putts, Woods would have been -2 on the day, -4 on the Open, and in position to take over.
While it sounds like he's not putting well, it's really about how he's hitting the ball.
The second of this three putts was set up by a bad approach. He pushed his shot into the green way right, leaving a hard lag putt.
And that's been the story of the day for Woods. He's hitting bad approach shots into the green, coming up short forcing him to hit really hard two putts just to stay in the game.
It feels like he's got a tough 5-6 footer for par on just about every hole. Luckily, he's been making most of them. Eventually, he won't. They're just too hard on these fast greens.
Woods has to improve his ball striking over the last stretch of holes if he wants to be in a position to attack over the weekend.
He's one over on the round with six left to play, including the par 5 17th. He's one under in the tournament, putting him in a tie for 10th. Coming into the day he was tied for ninth.
The course is playing tough, so we don't expect anyone to run away with it, but Woods chances of winning are looking less great this morning.