The Citizen (Gauteng)

Tiger burning brighter

TORREY PINES: FORMER WORLD NO 1 PROVIDES SOME MAGIC IN LEVEL-PAR 72

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Woods won his 14th and most recent Major here in 2008.

La Jolla

Tiger Woods managed a couple of moments of old-style magic on Thursday as he launched his latest US PGA Tour comeback with a level-par 72 at the Farmers Insurance Open.

The 42-year-old former world No 1 said he was “a little rusty”, but that didn’t dim the enthusiasm of the galleries that thronged around him on Torrey Pines’ South Course – scene of his 14th and most recent Major title at the 2008 US Open.

His six-iron off the tee at the par-three 16th nearly yielded a hole-in-one, tracking the pin all the way and settling eight inches from the pin for a tap-in birdie.

He grabbed the first of his three birdies at the par-five sixth, where he fired his tee shot 308 yards down the middle.

His eagle attempt from 50 feet was inches short and he tapped in for birdie.

“I hit a good putt,” Woods said of the eagle try. “It was a double breaking putt and just hung on the lip.”

He also rolled in a birdie putt from within two feet at the 10th.

“It was fun to feel that competitiv­e rush again – to have a scorecard in my hand and try and post a number,” said Woods, playing his first Tour event since missing the cut here last year in an abortive bid to return from more than a year on the sidelines.

Woods says he’s delighted to be playing without pain after spinal fusion surgery in April, but the day had its frustratio­ns.

“I’ve got to hit my irons better than I did today,” Woods said. “I didn’t hit them very close. I didn’t give myself a lot of looks out there.

“It’s hard to make a lot of birdies when you don’t give yourself a lot of looks.”

Woods, an eight-time winner at Torrey Pines, will have work to do on the North Course, typically the more forgiving of the two in use over the first two rounds.

Tony Finau seized the firstround lead with a seven-under 65 on the North Course that included nine birdies and two bogeys.

Woods was among more than 20 players sharing 84th place.

“I didn’t think there were going to be that many good scores out there,” Woods admitted. “I mean I’m in over 80th spot and shot even par.”

In a quick analysis of his round, Woods said he was happiest with his comfort with the putter.

“The greens are bumpy and I hit a lot of good putts,” he said. “I missed one at 13, but I hit a lot of good ones, which is good, it’s a good sign going into tomorrow.”

The par-five 13th was a bit of a nightmare.

In the right rough off the tee, Woods’s second shot left him in the fairway 97 yards from the flag. From there Woods found a greenside bunker, and he finally missed a three-footer to save par.

Woods’s first bogey of the day came at the opening hole, where he was in the far left rough off the tee and then found a greenside bunker.

He narrowly missed a long birdie attempt at the par-three third before he was in two bunkers en route to a bogey at the fifth.

While Woods was relaxed enough to enjoy the Pacific Ocean view from the fourth hole, there were signs of frustratio­n as well – including a swipe of his club after he found the rough off the tee at the par-three eighth. –

On an obscure wall of the Wanderers’ Unity Stand hangs a poster. It advertises Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) anonymous tip-off line where, in conjunctio­n with auditing firm Deloitte, one can confidenti­ally “provide any informatio­n regarding fraud, corruption and other workplace crime”.

These posters are hardly rare – you see them everywhere.

Instead, the catchy thing about this one is the heading: “We take (sic) unethical behaviour out for a duck. Cricket South Africa is committed to the principles of honesty, integrity and accountabi­lity”.

The irony is simply too big to ignore.

It’s actually a bit of a curse that the Proteas have started so well results-wise under Ottis Gibson.

Most of us are too giddy over the return of AB de Villiers or the emergence of Lungi Ngidi to shine enough of a spotlight on the dire state of corporate governance at CSA.

Since the chaos of the postponed T20 Global League – and actually even during the planning phase – the local governing body is seemingly not all too “committed” to those principles on the poster in question.

Yes, they’ve said they’ve commission­ed an external party to compile a report on their governance and procuremen­t.

The problem is CSA haven’t actually given a decent reason for this except to say there were “persistent governance failures”.

It sounds like an innocuous phrase but it’s potentiall­y a very scary umbrella term for some really big problems.

CSA will argue that’s why they’ve commission­ed the external report to tell us later exactly what those issues were. That doesn’t cut any mustard.

There’s been way too much secrecy and unanswered questions on things that are actually out in the open.

How was Haroon Lorgat, the former CEO, allowed to organise without any board oversight?

Why didn’t Thabang Moroe, now the acting chief, insist on being kept in the loop? After all, he and two other board members were on a sub-committee that needed to check up on Lorgat?

In the interest of transparen­cy and accountabi­lity, CSA at least needed to qualify why an external audit is required.

Now there’s trouble also brewing over a new Memorandum of Understand­ing for the players.

CSA want to dictate where guys like De Villiers and Kagiso Rabada play because they’re “employees”.

Such a naive view also points to dodgy decision-making.

 ?? Picture: Getty Images ?? STILL OFF THE PACE. Former world No 1 Tiger Woods admitted he was a little rusty after the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines on Thursday.
Picture: Getty Images STILL OFF THE PACE. Former world No 1 Tiger Woods admitted he was a little rusty after the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines on Thursday.

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