Tiger Woods, Lefty both miss cut
Another first for Tiger Woods. Unfortunately for Woods, he missed the cut just five days after winning the AT&T National in Bethesda, Maryland at famed Congressional, Woods is headed home early from the Greenbrier Classic, having missed the cut for just the ninth time in his professional career.
It's the first time both Woods and Mickelson missed the cut in the same tournament as professionals.
Woods came into the tournament off the high of his 74th PGA Tour victory on Sunday but left West Virginia after failing to conquar Old White TPC course, where there was plenty of low scoring.
A bigger issue was the performance of Phil Mickelson, who also missed the cut, leaving the third-year event without its two headliners, both of whom were widely believed to have received financial inducements for their participation.
U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson shot 66 to take the 36-hole lead. He played with Woods during the first two rounds and beat him by nine strokes.
Tom Watson, 62, the pro emeritus at the Greenbrier, shot 68 and finished at 2 under to make the cut.
Mickelson shot consecutive 71s, which included a penalty stroke Friday, to miss by three strokes. As it turned out, Woods needed to shoot 2-under-par 68 to make the cut, but after a 2-hour, 25-minute weather delay, Woods missed a makeable birdie putt than made consecutive bogeys on the back nine to make his task formidable.
He rebounded with birdies at the 12th and 14th holes, then missed an 8-footer for birdie at the 15th and could not convert at the par-5 17th. In the end, Woods simply didn't give himself enough chances, despite missing just three fairways on Friday. He struggled with his short irons, leaving himself long birdie putts despite short approach shots.
It is his second missed cut of the year, and just the second time in his career (the other 2005) that he's missed two cuts in the same season.
His other missed cut this year came at the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, where he was in the midst of his worst three-tournament stretch as a pro on the PGA Tour. Woods tied for 40th at the Masters, missed the cut in Charlotte, then tied for 40th at the Players Championship.
But he has since won the Memorial Tournament, was the 36-hole co-leader at the U.S Open before finishing tied for 21st, then won last week's AT&T National. That gave Woods three victories in seven starts (he also won the Arnold Palmer Invitational just before the Masters), and plenty of momentum and confidence with the Open Championship looming in two weeks.
For the first time in his 20-year Hall of Fame career, Mickelson has gone seven straight rounds without shooting par or better on the PGA Tour.
Both players will now get ready for the Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. Mickelson tied for second last year at Royal St. George's while Woods, a three-time winner of the Claret Jug, missed the tournament due to injury.