Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Woods beats heat, beats up Aronimink with opening 62
A few minutes after tying the Aronimink Golf Club course record of 62 in the first round of the BMW Championship Thursday, Tiger Woods reflected on the weather conditions that helped make his red-hot score possible.
“The course is playing so short right now because it’s hot and the ball is (flying) forever,” said Woods, who was hitting a lot of 9-irons and wedges on his par-4 approaches. “Today, the course wasn’t playing to its true yardage. The par4s are playing from 455-480 yards but that’s just a driver and a wedge under these conditions right now. That’s going to change when the rain comes in and the ball’s not rolling as far.”
Woods wasn’t the only one to equal Aronimink’s course record (Nick Watney shot a 62 here in 2011). Woods was actually a shot behind Rory McIlroy late, but McIlroy would also wind up at an 8-under 62.
“The fairways are ample wide and the greens are soft today, and with the positives right now, we’re driving it down there anywhere between 310 and 340 yards, so it’s really not that long a golf course right now,” Woods added while McIlroy was still on the course. “If you hit your wedges well, you’re going to give yourself 10-12 looks at putts. If you get on a hot run, like I did today, and like Rory’s doing right now, you can do it.”
Woods began his round on No. 10, birdied three of the first four holes and eagled the par-5 16th. He then nailed a birdie putt on 18 to finish the front nine in 29. Woods was far from finished. He sank a tricky downhill birdie putt on the No. 1 hole’s two-tiered green to move to 7-under after 10 holes.
Woods was cashing in on some 10-15 footers with the Scotty Cameron putter he switched to for the BMW Championship. Actually, it’s a putter he has owned since 1999 but has had a hot-andcold relationship with over the years.
“My body just remembers it,” Woods said. “When I go away from it, you know, when I was using the Nike putter I would always bring it out and hit putts with it. Sometimes it works but it just feels very familiar to me.
As for his last nine, “I gave myself good looks,” Woods said. “I hit good putts, but they just didn’t go in, and I can accept that.”
Woods look good off the tee, partially because he was getting some loft on his drives.
“My speed, my rotation, so many different things that have evolved throughout the year and have gotten better, so we’ve decided to go with more loft and go back to a shaft that I won with,” Woods said. “That’s a familiar feel, that’s a familiar flex point, that’s a familiar vibration of the shaft.”
Woods lofted it right over the green on No. 5, a 159yard par-3, but chipped back nicely to within gimme range for par. On No. 7, a 396-yard downhill par-4, he hit his approach shot only a few inches from the hole and tapped it in for a birdie to move to 8-under.
On the eighth hole, a 242-yard par-3, there was a lengthy wait, and Woods was caught between clubs, a 4-iron and a 5-iron. He decided to hit a soft 4 and pulled it left of the green, into the rough. His chip shot finished short of the hole, and he missed his par putt for his only bogey of the day.
On No. 9, an uphill 605yard monster par-5, Wood pounded a long drive, hit his second shot just short of the green, and two-putted from there to record a birdie and finish at 62.
While Thursday’s hot conditions made the course easier to play, it presented a challenge for the players.
“It is hard for me because I lose so much weight out here,” Woods of the heat. “I don’t eat enough calories because of taking so much water. I lose so much weight and lose strength and I lose power and endurance. It’s a task.”
It also keeps his tailor busy. Woods changed his shirt three times at Aronimink Thursday.
Jordan Spieth, who played in the threesome with Woods and Rickie Fowler Thursday, had another take on the heat.
“It was particularly hot today playing with Tiger,” Spieth said, “because the size of his galleries blocks the wind on the tee.”