Mediocrity was par for the course
PGA TOUR: Big crowd out in force at Torrey Pines to see Woods’ up-and-down return to professional golf
SAN DIEGO — Tiger Woods brought big crowds back to golf and he even produced a few big roars.
In his first PGA Tour event in a year because of a fourth back surgery, Woods mixed a few mistakes with a few shots that looked familiar Thursday on his way to an evenpar 72 in the opening round of the Farmers Insurance Open.
“It was fun to compete again. It was fun to be out there,” Woods said.
But he was seven shots behind Tony Finau, who led with a 65 on the North Course at Torrey Pines, and Woods will play that course Friday while on the bubble to make the cut. With virtually no wind on a day for reasonable scoring, he was tied for 84th.
Woods was steady on the South Course and at times spectacular.
His three birdie putts were from a combined 30 inches. The longest was from just inside two feet on No. 10 that got him back to even par for the round. He was one rotation away from making a long eagle putt on the par-5 sixth.
What really made the gallery delirious was his six-iron on par-3 16th hole that rolled toward the hole and broke just in front of the cup, settling eight inches away. With the sun starting to set behind the Pacific, it was hard for him to see.
“It felt good, looked good and then we were listening for some noise,” Woods said.
But he needed those three birdies to offset his mistakes and the sobering part of his return is Woods didn’t make a putt longer than four feet. That was on the second hole, when his approach from the bunker landed six feet behind the hole and went over the back into light rough.
He also gave away a shot on the par-5 13th, when he laid up from the rough and hit a wedge that drifted right and went into the bunker. He blasted that out to three feet, which was the hard part. Then he missed the short par putt.
Woods made his other two bogeys from greenside bunkers, both times missing 12-foot putts.
“It’s hard to make a lot of birdies when you’re not giving yourself any looks and I didn’t do that today,” Woods said. “Tomorrow, hopefully, I’ll drive a little better, get my irons obviously a lot closer and we get the better of the two greens tomorrow. So we’ll see what happens.”
But there was no mistaking his presence.
Fans lined both sides of the opening fairway in anticipation of seeing Woods, who was playing the PGA Tour for only the second time since August 2015. That was right before he had a second and third surgery on his back, which kept him away for some 15 months. He returned at Torrey Pines last year and opened with a 76 on his way to missing the cut. A week later, he withdrew after a 77 in Dubai with back spasms and was gone again.
Regardless of the score, Woods looked as though he’s back for the long haul. The fusion surgery eliminated the pain and while he wasn’t sharp, Woods hit the ball far and saw at least a little bit of the form that made him such a dominant figure.
Ben Silverman of Thornhill, Ont., was the low Canadian after a 3-under 69 and Adam Hadwin (71) of Abbotsford was 1 under. Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., Nick Taylor of Abbotsford and Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., all shot even-par rounds of 72, while David Hearn (81) of Brantford, Ont., was 9 over.