The Daily Telegraph

On the prowl

Tiger back in the mix despite sore neck

-

Whisper it softly, but Tiger Woods is a delicate flower in his dotage. Ten years ago, he won a US Open at Torrey Pines on one leg. And yet here on the balmy Angus coast, he needed to patch himself up with tape after waking yesterday with stiffness in his neck. While the American superstar might look in enviable condition for a 42-year-old, he cannot escape reminders from his body that he is no longer the indestruct­ible titan of his youth.

Three years have passed since Woods last graced an Open, and few present could dispute that it was worth the wait. To understand why a man who has not won a major for a decade still bestrides his sport, why a golfer ranked 71st in the world more than doubles the TV ratings of almost every event he enters, one had simply to be in the vicinity of Carnoustie’s first tee at 3.21pm.

The atmosphere belonged less to the stately grandeur of this championsh­ip than to the raucous bear pit of the Ryder Cup whenever Ian Poulter exhorts the crowd to turn up the volume. It was a reception befitting a Thracian gladiator.

Not that Woods affected to care too much. He is concerned less with the circus that his appearance stirs up than with the notion that he might still have it in him to seize the 15th major that would revive his pursuit of Jack Nicklaus’s 18. First things first, however. Woods has been so stricken with injury since his last Open, at St Andrews in 2015, battling through back problems that left him unable even to play with his children without pain, that his very presence on this stage was a joy.

A first round of 71, with a blemish-free outward half and an impressive patch-up job coming home, was as promising a return as anyone could realistica­lly have hoped. The only worry was his neck. After an uncomforta­ble night’s rest, Woods was sporting two strips of black kinesiolog­y tape, but insisted after his round that he had no cause for any greater concern. “It was a hell of a lot better than my back hurting,” he smiled. “I’ve been taped up, bandaged up – it’s just that you were able to see this one. It’s no big deal. Just gotta play.”

And play he did, conspicuou­sly well at times. Indeed, it was a novel experience to watch him make such an auspicious start. Not since the 2012 Open at Royal Lytham had Woods begun a major campaign with a birdie, but he put paid to that record with a nerveless opening, arrowing his approach to 10 feet and taking care of the rest. A happy portent? It looked that way as he picked up another stroke at the fourth, although his demeanour remained rigidly impassive.

With the 11th green shimmering in the evening sun, and the train from Aberdeen rattling in the background, Woods did not let his concentrat­ion waver. Faced with a 35-footer for birdie that moved sharply left to right, he made a perfect read, a pure stroke, and finally, a modest fist-pump as the ball dived into the cup. Where others were stumbling in the gusts that gathered over the back nine, Woods was making hay.

In approach, this was Hoylake 2006 revisited. Just as Woods navigated his way around a scorched Royal Liverpool with scrupulous restraint, he seldom had recourse at a parched Carnoustie for anything more potent than his trusty two-iron hybrid. Largely, the ruse worked a treat, as he split almost every fairway from the tee.

It was just a pity the same could not be said of his putter. Despite his resurgence of late, Woods remains susceptibl­e to the types of miscues inside six feet that were unconscion­able at his pomp. So it proved at the 13th, where a putt from gimme range lipped out on its last roll. Three-putt bogeys can seep like acid into the soul. Woods seemed knocked by it even as he took on the par-five 14th, a wide enough hole for most players in this field to feel comfortabl­e bombing their drivers.

After another cautious tee-shot, eclipsed in distance by playing partners Russell Knox and Hideki Matsuyama, he fanned a steepling iron to the right, the ball splatting into the greenside bunker with a fried-egg lie. To his credit, he dug it out with one mighty heave, clearing the lip by inches and channellin­g all his fabled powers of recovery to escape with par.

It was no disgrace that Woods was wobbling. Carnoustie’s closing three holes present as gruelling an examinatio­n as any on the major roster. Look at world No1 Dustin Johnson, who assumed yesterday that he had weathered the worst when he arrived at the 18th, only to walk off, like Jean van de Velde 19 years before him, with a seven.

Even the 16th provided not the briefest respite. The par-three measured 252 yards yesterday: hard in flat-calm conditions, but positively sadistic when a swirling wind is playing havoc with your judgment. Woods’s effort leaked into the right-hand rough, but he had the presence of mind to complete the up-and-down. Two stoic pars later, and he was safely back in the hutch.

It had been a constraine­d, unflashy performanc­e, but no less impressive for that. At the end of it, he was just two shots adrift of Rory Mcilroy and Danny Willett, the highest-placed players with experience of winning a major. Some grand theatre is bubbling to the boil. Patched up: Tiger Woods wearing his kinesiolog­y tape and (right) on the first green before sinking a birdie putt

 ??  ??
 ??  ??
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom