American golfer Tiger Woods has expressed his anger and disappointment over what he termed was his worst performance at PGA Championship in five tries.
The honest assessment comes despite him winning the event on four previous occasions.
The Washington Post quoted an exasperated Woods, as saying on Thursday: “I’m not down. I’m really angry right now. There’s a lot of words I could use beyond that.”
After playing the first five holes at 3-under, Tiger Woods fell apart on his way to a 7-over 77 at the PGA Championship. He hit two balls in the water, spent much of his day in the sand and wound up with three double bogeys and five bogeys.
US Open champion Rory McIlroy fared no better, as he found himself to the left of the third fairway, his ball up against the root of a tree.
He made the decision, not a prudent one, to swing away to the green. As soon as his club hit the root at full force, he let it fly, and moments later grimaced at his right wrist. The rest of his day involved icing that wrist, wrapping it in a towel, eventually taping it up.
Somehow, he shot an even-par 70, and headed for an MRI exam.
His management team released a statement Thursday night saying the “initial diagnosis” was a strained tendon in his right wrist.
“It was obviously very painful,” McIlroy said.
Steve Stricker’s opening 63, which included no pain, no second guesses, not a single bogey. He tied the record for lowest score in a major, a feat accomplished 25 times, most recently by McIlroy at the 2010 British Open at St. Andrews.
Stricker, 44, has never won a major — he’s actually rarely contended in them — but he is currently the highest-ranked American player in the world at No. 5.
He can, too, say something neither Woods nor McIlroy can at the moment: He is physically fit, at ease with his swing, and exceptionally comfortable in his own skin, whether a major title lies ahead or not.
