Tiger Woods misses cut at Congressional on injury return

Tiger Woods missed his first cut in 27 tournaments.

Tiger Woods missed the cut to bring his comeback from injury to a premature end at the Quicken Loans National.

The 14-time major winner, 38, fired a second-round 75 at Congressional to finish seven over par and miss the cut for the first time in 27 events.

But he said he was encouraged by his first tournament following a three-month absence after back surgery.

"I had no setbacks, no twinges, no pain. Certain parts of my body are feeling it, but not my back," he said.

Woods finished 13 shots adrift of joint leaders Marc Leishman and Oliver Goss of Australia and Americans Ricky Barnes and Patrick Reed.

Englishman Justin Rose, 33, made five birdies in his first nine holes as he fired a 65 - the best round of the day - to get to three under par for the tournament.

Woods was using the event to test his back in preparation for the Open Championship, which starts on 17 July at Hoylake, where he won the third of his three Claret Jugs and 11th major the last time the Open was played there in 2006.

He opened with a rusty three-over 74, and a double bogey on the fifth and another dropped shot at the eighth on Friday pointed to an early finish in the tournament that benefits his own foundation.

Successive birdies around the turn raised hopes of making it into the last two days but wayward driving into the thick Congressional rough and a misfiring short game caused him to leak four straight bogeys.

Justin Rose is a five-time winner on the US PGA Tour.

"I made so many little mistakes but that's something I can rectify and get fixed for the British Open," he added.

"I am really encouraged by what happened this week. I got my feel back for tournament golf.

"The way I was physically before surgery it wasn't fun. The one thing I was worried about was hitting my driver but I let it go and no problems at all."

Woods had not played competitively since the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral in March, where he recorded his worst ever final-round score of 78. It was after that tournament that he underwent surgery for a pinched nerve.

The American is still chasing Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 major titles, with his last major victory at the 2008 US Open.