Despite a sloppy finish and more attention over a juvenile prank, Tiger Woods will be part of the weekend at the Genesis Invitational, finishing with three bogeys over his last four holes for a 74.
He was at 1-over 143, leaving him 11 shots behind leader Max Homa, but certain to make the cut when the second round is completed Saturday morning. For the second straight day, darkness kept the round from finishing.
Woods, playing elite competition for the first time since the British Open last summer, apologised for offending people by slipping a tampon into the hand of Justin Thomas on Thursday after Woods outdrove him by about 10 yards.
“It was supposed to be all fun and games and obviously it hasn’t turned out that way,” Woods said.
Woods felt his 74 was as high as it could have been because of his putting, but at least he’s around for the weekend. So his Xander Schauffele, who looked certain to miss the cut until his shot from 173 yards flew straight into the cup on the 17th for an eagle. He made it on the number.
Homa, in the lead at his home town PGA Tour event, ran off three birdies around the turn at Riviera and tossed in a few big par saves Friday for a 3-under 68, giving him a one-shot lead over Jon Rahm, Keith Mitchell and Lee Hodges.
Homa hit wedge to four feet to a pin tucked behind the bunker for a birdie on No 9, holed a 15-foot birdie on the 10th and then chipped beautifully to a back right pin for a third straight birdie on the par-5 11th. His round ended with trouble off the tee that led to bogey, but he had no complaints at 11-under 131 and his name atop the leaderboard.
Homa has already won twice this season, including last month down the coast at Torrey Pines.
“I don’t know if I could ever do anything cooler in golf than this,” he said.
“Yeah, it’s exciting – 36-hole leads are awesome. Like I said, there’s a long way to go, but regardless, I can rest on the fact I’m playing great golf and I’m just going to try and do that for two more days.”
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Rahm has nine consecutive Top 10s dating to September, four of those victories, and he is close to returning to No 1 in the world. He went with a 5-wood from 270 yards on the par-5 17th and cooked it, sailing the green toward the back grandstands. The ball smacked off the base of the bleachers, tumbled along the edge of a bunker and settled just over 3 feet away for an eagle.
That capped off a stretch of playing five holes in 5-under par that put the Spaniard right into the mix going into the weekend.
“Obviously, I got very fortunate to get that bounce not only to go on the green, but to have basically 3 feet straight up the hill,” Rahm said. “That’s arguably the best bounce I’ve seen in person my whole golf career and it would be hard to beat in the future.”
Mitchell played in the morning, making five birdies to offset a few mistakes. He was in contention two weeks ago at Pebble Beach.
Collin Morikawa (68) was two shots behind, with Patrick Cantlay (67) another shot back. Rory McIlroy had a 69 and was four back.
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