Woods

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida (Reuters):

Tiger Woods, struggling on the greens for a second day in a row, flirted with missing the cut at the Players Championship yesterday.

The world number one, a stroke off the projected cut line with three holes to play, birdied the par-five 16th on his way to a one-over 73 in the second round.

That left Woods on four-over 148, eight strokes behind leader Nathan Green of Australia and likely to qualify for the weekend at the Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass.

"I knew the cut was probably going to be at four (over) and I just needed to get there somehow," the 31-year-old American told reporters after a battling round that included three bogeys and two birdies.

"You just have to try to drag yourself back into the tournament. Hopefully tomorrow I can shoot something which can get me into the red at least. Then you never know.

"These greens are just so slow," said Woods, who has won nine times on the PGA Tour in his last 12 starts. "It's hard to make yourself hit the putts that hard, especially when you putt by memory like I do here.

"I need to play better than I am right now. I just cannot afford to make the mistakes I have made. I had three three-putts yesterday and, after 36 holes, I have made only two birdies. That's not very good."

Woods has not missed the cut in a PGA Tour event since last year's U.S. Open at Winged Foot where he ended a nine-week break from the game following the death of his father Earl. Woods has only missed four cuts in his PGA Tour career.