Tiger's gone but the golf goes on at Congressional, where four players sit on the 36-hole lead.
The interest and widespread appeal of the Quicken Loans National deflated Friday afternoon when the tournament host flamed out and missed the cut. Tiger Woods won't play the final two rounds at Congressional, but he'll still stick around for the weekend and present the trophy Sunday night at the tournament his team organizes and which benefits his foundation.
While Woods probably didn't expect to contend, not getting a full four rounds in at what should be his last attempt to play his way into shape before the British Open has to be a disappointment. Tiger said he felt fine physically and that he was encouraged with how he swung the club, but he threw a ton of shots away and never really came close to making the weekend as he tumbled farther down the leaderboard in the second round. Losing Woods is obviously a huge blow to a tournament that was transformed last Friday when he announced he would make his return at Congressional.
There were several big names in addition to Tiger that MC'd too, including Jason Day, Jason Dufner, Keegan Bradley, and Ernie Els. It's not the same event with Tiger gone and it's foolish to try and argue otherwise. But this is still probably the best field and the best venue until the Open Championship, so just look at some things relatively!
Justin Rose, a former winner of this event and last year's U.S. Open champion, is probably the biggest name near the top of the leaderboard. Rose is 3-under at the midpoint after shooting the low round of the day on Friday, a 6-under 65. He's just three shots off the lead set by the Aussie duo of Marc Leishman and Oliver Goss and the American duo of Patrick Reed and Ricky Barnes. Brandt Snedeker and defending champ Bill Haas are also within striking distance. But the best story would probably be an Erik Compton win, and he's in the red at 1-under, continuing his solid form from the U.S. Open at Pinehurst two weeks ago.
There are 75 players left in the field, and the weather has held off so far and expected to be good on Saturday so the Tour will roll everyone off No. 1 in groups of two. Going off the first is a more enviable starting point, as opposed to the 220-yard shot over water at the very difficult par-3 10th -- Woods, Day, and Jordan Spieth all started their week there with a bogey on Thursday morning. Webb Simpson will lead things off right at 8 a.m. ET, playing solo and probably working his way around Congressional in three hours or less. The final pairing of Goss and Leishman won't go out until 1:50 p.m. ET, setting up an estimated finish around 6 p.m. when CBS is scheduled to go off the air.
Here's the full tee sheet for Saturday at Congressional:
| Tee Time | Pairing | |
| 8:00 AM | Webb Simpson | |
| 8:06 AM | Brian Davis | John Merrick |
| 8:15 AM | Angel Cabrera | Rory Sabbatini |
| 8:24 AM | Trevor Immelman | Scott Stallings |
| 8:33 AM | James Driscoll | Robert Streb |
| 8:42 AM | Greg Chalmers | Andrew Loupe |
| 8:51 AM | D.H. Lee | Ryan Palmer |
| 9:00 AM | Jordan Spieth | Steven Bowditch |
| 9:09 AM | John Huh | J.B. Holmes |
| 9:18 AM | John Rollins | Nick Watney |
| 9:27 AM | Charley Hoffman | Heath Slocum |
| 9:36 AM | Charles Howell III | Scott Brown |
| 9:45 AM | Ben Curtis | Hunter Mahan |
| 9:54 AM | Gary Woodland | Sean O'Hair |
| 10:03 AM | Andrew Svoboda | Seung-Yul Noh |
| 10:12 AM | Robert Garrigus | Kevin Chappell |
| 10:21 AM | Stewart Cink | Roberto Castro |
| 10:30 AM | Spencer Levin | J.J. Henry |
| 10:40 AM | Billy Hurley III | Kevin Kisner |
| 10:50 AM | Brendon Todd | Andres Romero |
| 11:00 AM | Daniel Summerhays | Davis Love III |
| 11:10 AM | Tyrone Van Aswegen | Brady Watt |
| 11:20 AM | Richard H. Lee | Patrick Rodgers |
| 11:30 AM | Geoff Ogilvy | Bo Van Pelt |
| 11:40 AM | Shawn Stefani | Jason Bohn |
| 11:50 AM | Carl Pettersson | Erik Compton |
| 12:00 PM | Cameron Tringale | Tim Wilkinson |
| 12:10 PM | K.J. Choi | Michael Putnam |
| 12:20 PM | Ben Martin | Brandt Snedeker |
| 12:30 PM | Bill Haas | Peter Hanson |
| 12:40 PM | Retief Goosen | Matt Every |
| 12:50 PM | Russell Knox | Brendan Steele |
| 1:00 PM | Justin Rose | Brendon de Jonge |
| 1:10 PM | Billy Horschel | George McNeill |
| 1:20 PM | Morgan Hoffmann | Freddie Jacobson |
| 1:30 PM | Hudson Swafford | Stuart Appleby |
| 1:40 PM | Ricky Barnes | Patrick Reed |
| 1:50 PM | Marc Leishman | Oliver Goss |
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