PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Two moments in Friday’s second round summed up the turbulent travails of super-group Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler. The first came when Woods’ caddie, Joe LaCava, tripped over Mickelson’s golf bag on the 18th green, the group’s ninth of the day. “I never brought it up again, but boy, I think Phil gave him a pretty good one,â€� said two-time PLAYERS champ Woods, who signed for a 1-under 71 and is the only one of the three players who emerged inside the cut line at 1-under total. The second moment was when 2015 PLAYERS champion Fowler, binoculars in hand, peered up into a tree that had eaten his golf ball at the sixth hole. He could never positively identify the ball and double-bogeyed the hole, then doubled the seventh hole, too, and signed for a 71 that left him 1-over and on the wrong side of the cut line. “Obviously didn’t make a great swing,â€� Fowler said of his tree shot, “but it’s five yards right of the fairway, and the marshals and fans were standing right there, saw it was in the tree. It hit and obviously got stuck up there. Unfortunately, the part of my ball that was showing was just all white and dimples; I couldn’t see any of my markings and so, yeah, couldn’t identify it, so back to the tee.â€� As for Mickelson, the 2007 winner here, he played slightly better with a 1-over 73 Friday, but the damage had already been done with his disastrous 79 in the first round. Although few might have guessed that only one member of this group would make the cut, Woods was the only one still standing as the tournament heads into the weekend rounds. “No, no, I have my own struggles,â€� Woods said, when asked if it was hard to focus amid the copious calamity in his group. “I have my own business I need to take care of. This golf course is so demanding, and it puts so much stress on you from tee to green, it’s very stressful, a very stressful ball-striking course because there really isn’t a let-off.â€� Woods played okay from tee to green, hitting eight of 14 fairways and 12 of 18 greens in regulation, but he suffered some uncharacteristic misses. He took dead aim with a wedge from 106 yards away on the fourth hole, but “stuck it in the ground and hit it long,â€� into the back bunker. He three-putted, he misread greens, he didn’t make much of any length. Mostly, though, he didn’t put himself in position to make birdies. TPC Sawgrass is often called a second-shot course, and Woods was not sharp with his irons, much as he wasn’t at the Masters. “I wasn’t close enough,â€� he said. “I didn’t hit the ball close enough and in the right—in a section where, yeah, I had those 10-, 12-footers and which I should do with my 9-iron on down. I didn’t leave myself hardly any of those opportunities today.â€� Well before he donned his much-chronicled long-sleeved golf shirt to play alongside Woods and Fowler, Mickelson worried aloud that he had worn himself out with his T5 at the Wells Fargo Championship last week. That turned out to be the case at THE PLAYERS. He made his fourth double-bogey in two days at the par-3 13th hole, his fourth hole of the day, and while his six birdies Friday were a vast improvement over the day before, he never threatened to make the cut. Mickelson’s other prophetic comment, prior to the first round: “I can’t believe I won here.â€� Fowler had birdied three of his last four holes and was well inside the cut line when he hit his ball into the top of a palm tree at the sixth hole. He had done the same thing at THE PLAYERS last year, on the 18th hole, but was able to identify his ball. This time, he could not. He tugged his tee shot into the water at the par-4 seventh hole, leading to his second straight double-bogey, and pars at the eighth and par-5 ninth were not enough. Fowler and Mickelson will now go home and regroup, while Woods gears up for the weekend. “Well, I got to shoot something in the probably mid 60s both days to get myself up there to have a chance or something,â€� he said. “Hopefully give myself some more looks. Feel like I’m putting well, I’m just never inside that range which I should be with the irons I’m having.â€�
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