Wild driver, putter steer Woods to early exit

A much-hoped-for showdown between golf's No. 1- and No. 2-ranked players in the Quail Hollow Championship was derailed in dramatic fashion today when Tiger Woods matched the worst nine-hole score of his PGA Tour career on his way to a 7-over-par 79.

Woods, who shot what he termed a "terrible" 74 in the first round, missed a cut for only the sixth time in his 14-year career. His 79 included double bogeys on the 14th and 15th holes and six bogeys.

"It is what it is," Woods said on the Golf Channel. "Whatever it was, wasn't good enough."

Woods, the world's No. 1-ranked golfer, had three-putt bogeys on consecutive holes on the back nine on his way to a 43. He hit rock bottom on the 15th hole when he four-putted for double bogey from just more than 30 feet. The performance is surprising in as much as Woods was coming off a tie for fourth at the Masters three weeks ago.

In his first appearance at a regular PGA Tour event since admitting marital infidelity five months ago, Woods was done in by his wild driving. After hitting just four of 14 fairways with his tee shots on Thursday, he hit just two fairways today in earning an early exit from an event in which he had three top-five finishes in his four previous appearances, winning in 2007 and finishing fourth last year.

On the 17th hole, a fan was escorted off the course for heckling Woods, shouting "No red shirt for you on Sunday, Tiger," a reference to Woods' usual final-round wardrobe choice. After his round when asked what he would do during a rare weekend off, Woods quipped: "I'll get to watch how it's done. I'll get to see how real golfers do it."

The only other times Woods has missed the cut were at the 1997 Canadian Open, the 2005 Byron Nelson Championship, the 2005 Funai Championship, the 2006 U.S. Open and the 2009 British Open. He holds the record of 142 consecutive cuts made from 1998 through 2005.

Meanwhile, Mickelson, the world's No. 2-ranked golfer, shot a 68 and is two shots back of 36-hole leader Billy Mayfair. A Mickelson victory Sunday would go a long way in loosening Woods' grip on the No. 1 ranking he's held for the last 255 weeks and for a total of 597 during his career.

Mickelson needs to win approximately 110 more points than Woods over the next couple of weeks to take over the World No. 1 spot. The Quail Hollow Championship offers 64 points for the winner and The Players Championship winner picks up a guaranteed 80 points.

The other players who have had official World No. 1 status in the 24-year history of the rankings are Bernhard Langer (3 weeks), Seve Ballesteros (61 weeks), Greg Norman (331 weeks), Nick Faldo (97 weeks), Ian Woosnam (50 weeks), Fred Couples (16 weeks), Nick Price (44 weeks), Tom Lehman (1 week), Ernie Els (9 weeks), David Duval (15 weeks) and Vijay Singh (32 weeks).

Information from ESPN.com, Bloomberg.com and officialworldgolfranking.com contributed to this post.