Tiger has struggles in the 1st round

Woods opens with 3-over par on day Winged Foot was there for the taking

MAMARONECK, N.Y. — Tiger Woods didn’t get the start he wanted — and needed — on a day when Winged Foot was at its easiest.

Woods finished his morning round at 3-over par and was already eight shots behind playing partner Justin Thomas’ lead. Back in his heyday it wouldn’t seem insurmountable but Woods has been burying himself with poor starts lately.

“Well, we have a long way to go,” hesaid. “This is a long marathon of a tournament. There’s a lot of different things that can go on. I just wish I would have finished off my round better.” Or started it better.

Woods was 2-over through five, finding three bunkers, two of them green side. He was unable to save par on four and then gave himself an awkward split-legged stance just out of the bunker on five. He missed a six-footer there for the save, perhaps the only poor putt he hit all day.

Four birdies over the next six holes around another bogey on eight got him into red numbers but the round fizzled after that with three bogeys and a closing double when he laid the so dover a chip on 18. In all, Woods made just six pars, six bogeys and that one double.

“It was a bit of ebb and flow to the round today,” he said. “I did not finish off the round like I needed to. I made a bunch of putts in the middle part of the round. It seemed like mostof my drives on the front nine landed in the fairway and ended up in bad spots, and I tried to stay as patient as possible, and unfortunately just did not finish off my round the way I needed to.”

Woods said the course setup was “fantastic” with some very fair pin positions that let the players go after some flags on relatively soft greens.

“I just think that the golf course is there to be had,” he said. “Obviously they could have made it a lot more difficult if they wanted to. I don’t see any reason why it won’t get harder and get more difficult.”

Nice showing for amateur Davis: Amateur Davis Thompson spent some time on top of the U.S. Open leaderboard Thursday and the University of Georgia All-American didn’t look out of place at all.

After finishing the day at 1-under, he said his goal coming in was to “just compete, just do the best that I can.”

“I’m not oblivious to the fact this is my first major championship. I’m going to be nervous but that’s part of it,” he added. “Just compete my tail off, just stay in my routine, just not make it bigger than it is. Just try to play golf like I do every day.”

Grind for Spieth: Jordan Spieth’s day got off to a rotten start when his opening tee shot on the first hole got stuck in a tree and never fell to the ground.

The 2015 Open champ was forced to make the long drive back to the tee and managed to make double. It didn’t get a whole lot better as he struggled with his swing. His final score, 73, was a tribute to his short game and what he called “an incredible belief in the grind.”

“There’s a lot that’s off. I’m not really sure. If I knew, I’d fix it,” he said. “Standing on a tee at the U.S. Open and not exactly knowing where the ball is going to go is not a great feeling. It’s not incredibly enjoyable. But I’ll grind it out. I don’t ever give up. I have no reason to. I’m here.”

All in the family: Eighteenyear-old Preston Summerhays, the 2019 U.S. Junior Amateur champion, turned in a nice round with a 2-over 72 after getting some advice from fellow Utah resident Tony Finau.

“He was like, ‘Hey, Preston, just go have fun tomorrow. You deserve to be here. Just no matter what you do, it’s going to be a great experience. So that kind of calmed me down a little bit,” said Summerhays,

“To be honest, I was really, really nervous off the first hole. After that, I just kind of settled in andstarted playing my game.”