Woods struggles, makes cut at Aronimink

Tiger Woods had just finished blasting one of his majestic drives when he unwrapped a sandwich and took a bite.

"Oh, look - I wonder if it's ham or cheese or what," someone in the jam-packed gallery remarked Friday.

While one of his adoring followers pondered what was between the two slices of white bread he was holding, Woods wondered what it might take to master the sweeping, ridged greens at Aronimink Golf Club.

At the time he decided to have lunch on the run, it appeared Woods might be ready to make a move up the leader board in the AT&T National. He had just birdied the par-4 third, his 12th hole of the gorgeous day, and he was on his way toward another birdie on the fourth, where he sank a 28-foot putt and celebrated with a fist pump.

But as was the case in Thursday's first round, Woods found birdie putts elusive, with Aronimink's difficult greens continuing to confound him and many of his competitors. He bogeyed two of the last five holes, finished with an even-par 70, and waited for the rest of the field to complete the round before officially learning he had made the cut.

After giving more credence to the old golf adage that says drive for show, putt for dough, Woods enters Saturday's third round at 3-over par, 10 strokes off the pace.

"When you're not making any putts, what are you going to do?" Woods said. "No matter how good I drive it, it doesn't matter. The putts aren't going in. I've just got to putt better."

The day after he missed six of eight putts from between five and 10 feet away, Woods failed on one from 2 feet, 5 inches to end up with a bogey on the par-3 eighth.

"I just blocked it," he said.

After he struggled through the first round, Wood was happy with the speed of his putting and said his line was off. After the second round, he said he wasn't happy with his putting stroke.

"For some reason, I couldn't release the blade and couldn't get it moving," he said. "[The greens] are tough to read - there's no doubt. Still, I had some good looks and just didn't make anything."

The birdie on the 28-foot putt that prompted the fist pump had put him at 2 under with five holes remaining and suggested he might be in for a strong finish. But he missed the green on the par-3 fifth, and his chip shot rolled about 10 feet past the pin, which was placed on the far left edge of the green.

"I was just trying to land the ball close, whether it was on the fringe or on the green," he said.

After the first two rounds, Woods is 4-over par on par-3 holes and 1 over on par 5s, which he frequently birdies.

"I played [the par 5s] awful, absolutely awful," he said.

Alluding to the 605-yard par-5 ninth, he added: "Drove it perfect a couple of times and couldn't take advantage of it. And on [the par-5] 16th I was in the right rough, so I had to lay up."

Woods said that he knows the solution to his putting problems, but that it's a matter of putting it into practice. Despite his struggles, he sounded far from discouraged about his chances of making a weekend charge at the leaders.

"Greg [Norman] always said if you're 6 back on Sunday, you're still in the tournament," he said. "I'm hitting it well. I've just got to get the ball in the hole. The golf course is going to be more difficult over the weekend. Hopefully, I can go out there and get something out of it."