Tiger Woods Survives and Makes the Cut on the Number at Memorial

15-time major winner Tiger Woods had never missed the cut in 17 appearances at the Memorial Tournament, an event he was won five times. Following a second round 76 that included two three-putts early in the round and concluded with back-to-back birdies, Woods had to sweat it out and eventually made the cut on the number at 3-over.

“I wasn’t quite moving as well as I’d like and couldn’t quite turn back and couldn’t quite clear. It was a bit of a struggle,” Woods said. “It started this morning during the warmup. It wasn’t quite as good as I’d like and it is what it is.”

The 3-over 147 is tied for Woods’ highest 36 hole score at the Memorial.

“Aging is not fun,” Woods continued.” Early on in my career I thought it was fantastic because I was getting better and better and better, and now I’m just trying to hold on.”

The lead currently sits at 9-under, held by Tony Finau and Ryan Palmer.

Finau recovered from two early bogeys and closed with three birdies in his last five holes to fire a three-under 69.

“I was really happy with the finish, the way I finished,” Finau said. “Not the ideal start, but I knew I couldn’t look back after 12, just keep on plugging along and try to hit good shot after good shot, and was able to execute a lot better after that”

Palmer, who struggled in missing the cut last week at the Workday Charity Open, has had only one bogey over the first two rounds as he followed up a first round 67 with a 68.

Jon Rahm is alone in third, one shot back after a second round 67.

“Pretty solid. Man, the first I would say 12 holes, I played such good golf, not many mistakes,” Rahm said. “Only missed one green, I believe, and that was the 17th, and it was just misjudged on the wind. Really, really comfortable. The key today was making a few par putts. A couple, three-, four-, five-, six-footers for par that kept the round going.”

Jason Day is in solo seventh after a second round 66 catapulted him back into contention.

Jordan Spieth is in a tie for eighth along with Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Viktor Hovland and defending champion Memorial Patrick Cantlay.

Justin Thomas is in a tie for 16th at 3-under. After struggling in the first round with a 74, he rebounded with a 67 to get back in the mix.

World No. 1 Rory McIlroy is in a tie for 21st at 2-under.

“There’s some good in there, obviously, some mediocre, and there was some pretty poor shots,” McIlroy said. “Got off to a terrible start, but battled back and hung in there and ended up shooting a reasonable score.”

Phil Mickelson will be playing on the weekend as his 2-over has him in a tie for 47th with multiple players including last week’s winner, Collin Morikowa.

Brooks Koepka also made the cut on the number at 3-over and will be teeing it up with Tiger Woods for the third consecutive day as they are paired together on Saturday morning.

Bryson DeChambeau literally shot himself out of the tournament on the par-5 15th hole when he went from 1-over to 6-over following a a quintuple-bogey 10 that included two shots going out of bounds. This is his first missed cut since the PGA TOUR’s return to action.

Rickie Fowler bounced back from an opening round 81 with a 68, but would miss the cut by two shots.

Dustin Johnson fired consecutive 80s to end up at 16-over par and miss the cut by 13 shots.

Other notables who have the weekend off include Webb Simpson, Justin Rose, Kevin Kisner, Ernie Els and Hideki Matsuyama.