Tiger Woods will make the cut for The Genesis Invitational with no room to spare after shooting a 3-over par 74 Friday at The Riviera Country Club, with bogeys on three of his final four holes.
Woods was among 11 players who had completed two rounds at the projected cut line of 1-over 143 when second-round play was suspended due to darkness at 5:39 p.m. The second round will resume at 7:10 a.m. Saturday with 14 players needing to complete their rounds.
The players who need to complete their second rounds cannot effect Woods’ chances of making the cut.
The field of 129 will be reduced to the low 65 plus ties following the conclusion of the second round.
Woods is tied for 60th, nine strokes behind leader Max Homa.
This will be the third time Woods has made the cut at an official PGA Tour event in the four tournaments he has played since he suffered multiple fractures to his right leg and ankle when the SUV he was driving rolled over on a downhill slope of northbound Hawthorne Boulevard in Rancho Palos Verdes on Feb. 23, 2021.
In 2022, Woods finished 47th in the Masters in April, was forced to withdraw from the PGA Championship in May after three rounds and missed the cut at the Open Championship in July.
Woods began his round Friday on the 10th tee. He parred his first two holes, had back-to-back bogeys on the 12th and 13th holes and birdied the 14th and 17th holes to finish the back nine at even-par 36.
Woods parred each of the first five holes on the front nine then bogeyed three of the final four.
“I did not putt well today,” Woods said. “I blocked a lot of putts early and this is probably the highest score I could have shot today. Probably should have shot probably five or six better than this easily.
“Just didn’t make the putts early and the middle part of the round when I had those opportunities. And they weren’t very hard putts, I just hit bad putts and obviously had a very bad finish, too.”
Woods entered the round among 17 golfers tied for 27th, five strokes behind the co-leaders Homa and Keith Mitchell.
Homa shot a 3-under 68 to take a one-stroke lead over Mitchell, Jon Rahm and Lee Rogers. Collin Morikawa is in fifth, two strokes off the lead.
Homa and Rahm are the only multiple winners during the 2022-23 season. Homa, a 2009 graduate of Valencia High School, won the 2022 Fortinet Championship and last month’s Farmers Insurance Open. Both of Homa’s victories this season, and four of the six during his 157 starts entering The Genesis Invitational, have come in California.
“I’m not really sure why I play so well in California,” said Homa, who won the 2021 Genesis Invitational. “Obviously there’s some comfortability with the grass and how far the ball goes.
“This golf course in particular does suit me really well. It suits a lot of the shots I like to hit.”
Rahm was the 15-2 favorite entering the first round. His odds have dropped to 12-5, according to BetMGM, an official betting operator of the PGA Tour. Homa is the second choice at 3-1.
The $20 million tournament is set to conclude Sunday. The winner will receive $3.6 million.