Hopes of a miraculous third round charge from Tiger Woods have been emphatically crushed after a day of unprecedented drama at the Masters in Augusta.
In what was his worst ever round at the Masters, Woods shot a 78 to crash out of contention on a day where World No.1 Scottie Scheffler held off an inspired Cameron Smith to take a three-shot lead heading into the final round.
Woods was clearly struggling throughout his third round, looking every bit like a man still recovering from a horror car crash 14 months ago that nearly took one of his legs.
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Just making the cut was astonishing enough for the 15-time major winner, but the 46-year-old had inspired so much more hope after insisting he had what it took to claim a record-equalling sixth green jacket.
Those hopes are as good as over after Woods struggled to place his approach shots anywhere near the flag, and simply couldn’t seem to get any putts to drop.
He used clubs as impromptu canes, and when he left the scoring room to fulfil his media obligations, Woods visibly limped so badly that even stepping up onto the one-step podium came with risk.
“It’s been hard,” Woods said after his round.
“The conditions were tough today. … It’s just been blustery all day. You add in the temperature difference, it was cold starting out. The ball wasn’t going very far.”
After fighting his way through yet another up-and-down round — three birdies, three bogeys, one double-bogey — through the first 15 holes, Woods fell apart within sight of the clubhouse.
He bogeyed 16 and 17 and doubled 18, walking off the final green like he was losing parts. He three-putted four holes and four-putted a fifth, unable to get any sense of a read on how the greens were rolling Saturday.
Woods said his “awful” putting was largely to blame for the third round meltdown that proved tough to watch for fans.
