Saturday 31 January 2015 17:16, UK
Tiger Woods slumped to the worst round of his professional career as he crashed out of the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
The 14-time major winner was a shadow of his former self as he laboured to a horrific 11-over 82 which left him joint-bottom of the 132-player field on 13 over par.
Woods had shown glimpses of his best despite opening with a 73 on Thursday, but his all-round game disintegrated in spectacular style in the second round as he carded six bogeys, two double-bogeys and a triple-bogey eight at the 15th.
Already facing an uphill battle to make the halfway cut, the former world No 1 played himself out of the tournament as he equalled his worst ever nine holes in the professional ranks - covering the back nine in 44 blows.
After opening with a solid par at the 10th, a poor drive left Woods next to a tree and he did well to get up and down for bogey, but worse was to follow at the 14th where he had to take a penalty drop from an unplayable lie and ran up a double-bogey six.
Unbelievably, Woods got into more serious trouble at the par-five 15th as his drive found the water, his fourth from a bunker scuttled over the green, and a duffed chip and two putts later he was signing for an eight.
His suspect short game let him down again at the 17th, and another shot went despite a good drive at the 18th as he headed for the front nine on eight over par.
Disappointing
Woods steadied himself with a couple of pars before setting up an eagle chance at the third, but he walked off with a disappointing five after taking three putts.
He then flew the green at the short fourth and thinned his chip back over the green and into a bunker, from where he took three more to get down, but he finally managed to lift his spirits with his first birdie of the day at the next after knocking his approach to five feet.
But that proved only a minor respite as he bogeyed the next two holes, although he hit back with a second to nine feet from the rough at the eighth to set up another birdie.
However, he could not avoid posting a new career low at his final hole, where he cut a disconsolate figure after he was unable to reach the green following another wayward tee shot and finished with a bogey.
Woods, who will drop out of the world top 50 for the first time since November 2011 when the rankings are updated on Monday, did at least manage to raise a smile when facing the media after his round.
"I'm just here so I won't get fined," he joked in reference to Marshawn Lynch's bizarre pre-Super Bowl press conference on Media Day.
"I've got to continue with my process. I've been here before. It wasn't too long ago that I changed my swing with Sean Foley. I've got to keep this in perspective, although sometimes that's hard to do.
"We all have days like this. Unfortunately mine was in a public setting but we all have days like this and we take the good with the bad.
"Even on bad days like this, just keep fighting because on the good days you've to keep fighting as well."
