Tiger claws back after slow start
BETHESDA, Md. — Ordinarily a round of 74 isn’t anything to be happy about.
But this wasn’t an ordinary 74. In his first competitive round since his back surgery, Tiger Woods grinded his last six holes as if he was trying to win the U.S. Open. Three birdies brought him back to respectability and, at 3-over, gave him a shot at making the Quicken Loans National cut instead of spending the weekend on the range getting ready to hand over the trophy as the tournament host.
“I think the hard part was just getting into the rhythm of playing competitively,” he said after his first competitive round in 109 days. “You play with your buddies all day for cash and stuff but it’s just not the same. It’s not the same as tournament golf, different level. Adrenaline is rushing, and I hit the ball further out here than I do at home. Try to get the numbers, try to get the feels. Didn’t start happening until midway through my front nine. It unfortunately took a while to get the feel for it.”
A rusty Woods made seven bogeys on his first 12 holes, mostly because of short game mistakes, before posting three birdies on his final six holes to wake up the expectant galleries.
“The more I played, the more I felt comfortable about shot selections, my sight lines, all different things,” he said. “If you play all the time, it’s second nature. But I’ve been off for a while, and I’ve been held back where I just haven’t been able to let it go. Now I’m able to start doing that, try to get my numbers again. That’s always been the challenge.” The back, Woods said, was not an issue. “No twinges, no nothing. It felt fantastic,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons why I let go on those tee shots. I hit it pretty hard out there.”
The only thing that made Woods’ start look a little better was that his big name playing partners, Jason Day (2-overpar, 73) and Jordan Spieth (3-over, 74), were struggling just as badly. “We were all kind of looking to break 80,” he joked. Woods hit the ball better than Day and Spieth and probably better than most people expected, with nine fairways and 10 greens in regulation. But his short game wasn't pretty, and that should have been the strongest part of his game with more time to work on it.
“Too many mistakes,” he lamented. “I hit some bad shots. Those are bad pitches, and those are the ones I should get up and down every time.”
On his first hole, the par-3 10th, he couldn’t get up and down from the back bunker. On 11, he left a 50-foot putt 20 feet short. There was a stubbed chip on 17 and a bunch of short par putts that never had a chance of falling.
But after a bogey on No. 3, his 12th hole, where he failed to get up and down from the bunker, he seemed to draw a line in the sand and call on his competitive will. He would stick three approach shots inside four feet on 4 and 7 and inside three feet on 8 in a ball-striking display. When it was over, he said the score “was not indicative” of how he played.
“He finally found his rhythm, and we saw what happens when he found his rhythm,” Spieth said. “So look for a pretty solid round tomorrow out of him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he shoots a few under.”
He could use it. The late charge left him eight shots out of the lead (Greg Chalmers, 66, at 5-under) in a tie for 83rd place in the 120-man field. But he’s also just one shot off the cutline. With the course playing difficultly, anything around par should be enough to get him to the weekend. For now, 74 was a decent start. “It’s nice to get back out here playing again,” he said. “I unfortunately have been in my career on the sidelines enough.”
There would be no arguments from anyone on that.