DUBLIN, Ohio -- One hole turned what was shaping up to be a promising weekend into a much bigger challenge for Tiger Woods at the Memorial Tournament.
Making a modest move up the leaderboard Friday at Muirfield Village Golf Club, Woods hooked a 3-wood approach into tall grass to the left of the par-5 15th hole and took 5 more strokes to get down for a deflating double-bogey 7 that led to a score of even-par 72.
Woods was in position to birdie the hole but the double-bogey left him seven strokes back of 36-hole leaders Troy Merritt, K.H. Lee and Martin Kaymer.
"A round that could have flipped and gone in a positive way didn't do that because of what I did on 15,'' said Woods, who after missing the green left two pitch shots short, then missed a 4-footer for bogey.
"I could hit that ball 50 yards right of the flag and be fine,'' Woods said of his 5-wood shot from 256 yards. "Anything inbounds right of the flag I have a chance to make birdie. I just can't afford to miss it left where that flag is. And I did.''
And so it went for Woods, who is playing his second tournament since winning the Masters in April and is tied for 33rd.
Woods struggled with hitting the ball left for much of the round, particularly early, when he hit just two of seven fairways over his first nine holes. He made one bogey and one birdie.
He then made birdies at the 11th and 13th holes and gave himself an 8-foot birdie look at the 14th that he missed, before the troubles at the par-5 15th.
"Predominantly my miss today was left,'' he said. "And yesterday it was right. Hopefully my misses tomorrow will be straight at it. Just the way it was. I just really wasn't able to feel as comfortable as I'd like. But I was hitting it flush. It really isn't that much that's really wrong.''
Woods, who is first on the PGA Tour this year in greens in regulation at 74 percent, has hit just 21 of 36 through two rounds (58 percent). He will tee off Saturday at 10:35 a.m. ET with Ryan Armour.
