You Could Have Beaten Tiger Woods Today

Tiger Woods never shot a score this high in his 1,267 official rounds as a pro. He never looked more lost on a golf course. Woods hit wedges fat and thin, but never close. He hit one drive into the water, another into the base of a desert bush. And when he missed a 10-foot par putt on his final hole today in the Phoenix Open, he had the worst score of his career—an 11-over 82. Woods was in last place when he headed home to Florida to try to fix a game in disarray. It was the first time in his career that he missed the cut in consecutive PGA Tour events, the most recent one in August at the PGA Championship.

About the only thing he didn't lose was his sense of humor. "I'm just doing this so I don't get fined," Woods said with a smile as he faced the media, repeating Marshawn Lynch's only line at Super Bowl media day. He attributed his play to his latest swing change, which he described in December as "new but old," although this game resembles neither. "I was caught right between patterns, just old pattern, new pattern," Woods said. "And I got better, more committed to what I was doing on my back nine and hit some better shots. But still got a lot of work to do." (More Tiger Woods stories.)