Tiger Woods is NOT BACK. In fact, he is slated to miss the cut for just the eighth time in 266 career PGA Tour starts, finishing at even par through two rounds at Quail Hollow in the Wells Fargo Championship -- one below the projected cut line.
But it wasn't for a lack of trying -- on his part, or the tour. Per ESPN.com's story on Woods, who started on the back 9:
All of this occurred despite a fortunate ruling for Woods at the par-5 fifth hole, where Woods hooked his second shot to the left of the green -- and nobody could find it. A lost ball would have meant a penalty stroke and going back to the original spot to hit again, but witnesses told a PGA Tour rules official that they saw the ball land and that a spectator must have picked it up. Woods got a free drop and made par.
"It was a very unusual situation, but based on all the evidence ... where else could the ball have been," said PGA Tour rules official Mark Russell. "It was like being lost on the floor right here."
None of that mattered, however, when Woods wasn't able to birdie any of the closing holes. He had a 5-footer at the par-4 eighth that might have put him on the cut line but missed it.
The ruling could have very well been correct, but some golf writers on the scene weren't convinced. Some on Twitter said eyewitness accounts of what happened to the ball conflicted. And there was this fun Twitter exchange:
