PGA Championship cut: Tiger Woods in danger of going home early yet again

Friday afternoon's coverage at the PGA Championship will largely be consumed by Dustin Johnson's efforts to extend his lead and Tiger Woods' efforts to avoid an ignominious third straight missed cut at a major championship.

Woods should start his second round at 2:30 p.m. ET on the wrong side of the projected cut line, which currently sits at 2-over. Tiger is 3-over after a frustrating opening 75 on Thursday. While Tiger's summer has been a mess, especially at the majors, it didn't have to be this way. Woods caught a nice break going out early on in the first round during what could be the easiest scoring conditions of the entire week. He actually kept his ball in play for most of the morning, avoiding the big miss with his driver and playing relatively well with his irons on approach shots.

But Tiger could get nothing going with his putter. It was a mix of burned edges and lip-outs or truly awful strokes and lags. He squandered birdie try after birdie try through his opening nine, which was the easier stretch of this Whistling Straits layout.

Now he's behind the cut line and will have to grind in what will likely be more difficult and windier afternoon conditions on Friday. Does Tiger really have that in him any more? He'll need as good, if not better, ball striking on Friday and have to find something with the putter. Tiger had never missed consecutive major championship cuts before this summer. He bombed out of the U.S. Open and British Open and was never really close, coming down the stretch Friday near the very bottom of the leaderboard and with no hope of making the weekend.

Tiger is at least starting with a chance to get there this Friday. If he does have "total control" of his ball and is improving like he says, then an under-par round to get 36 more holes would be the kind of improvement we need to see. It's astonishing that's where we're at with Tiger right now,.

In addition to Tiger, other big names in danger of going home are Zach Johnson, Keegan Bradley and Adam Scott. This is Scott's last major championship using an anchored putter and sitting at 5-over, it looks like it will only last two rounds. At least Scott is qualified for the FedExCup and can play again this year. Tiger, on the other hand, may be playing his last PGA Tour round of the season. Here's the early projected cut and the names hovering above and below it:

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