BACK TO LIFE
Tiger weathers ups & downs in ‘pain-free’ return to PGA
LA JOLLA, Calif. — The first fairway on the Torrey Pines South Course was lined with a sea of humanity — three deep along the ropes from tee to green — like it was 2008 again with a U.S. Open title hanging in the balance.
That, of course, was the last time Tiger Woods won a major championship, the 14th of his career.
But this was not a major championship being played Thursday morning. It was the opening round of the Farmers Insurance Open, which also happened to be the first PGA Tour event Woods has played in a year, since this tournament in 2017, and only the 21st worldwide tournament he has played since the first of four back surgeries in March 2014.
So when Woods stood on the first tee Thursday for his 10:40 a.m. (local time) start, there was a heavy sense of anticipation hanging in the cool air off the Pacific Ocean.
Woods, a year after shooting an opening-round 76 on the South Course en route to missing the cut, shot an opening-round evenpar 72 to stand in 84th place and seven shots behind leader Tony Finau. That has Woods one shot out of the current cut line, though the cut is expected to move to about even par, where it stood last year.
Woods will play his second round Friday on the North Course, which is considered slightly easier than the South. The top 70 scores and ties make the cut, something Woods hasn’t done since the 2015 Wyndham Championship.
Woods did a good job keeping his round together and staying in contention on a day when his game was inconsistent and he never made a putt of longer than 4 feet. He hit 8-of-14 fairways and 12-of-18 greens and took 31 putts.
Last year after shooting the opening-round 76, Woods put himself in a hole too deep to make the cut. He’ll wake up Friday morning in good position to make the cut and get four rounds in, which has been his primary goal all along.
There were two moments in the round when Woods came close to delivering the fireworks the masses following him were hoping for.
The first came on the par-5 sixth hole, where he reached in two and nearly drained his long eagle putt. Then, on the par-3 16th hole, Woods nearly jarred a 6-iron for his first hole-in-one since 1998. The ball came to rest a tantalizing 2 inches from the cup.
It was the near ace that left the strongest impression on both his caddie, Joe LaCava, and Patrick Reed, one of his playing partners.
“The high 6-iron on 16 was beautiful — not because he hit it to a foot, but because it was the shot he was trying to hit,” LaCava told The Post.
“He was able to penetrate it through the wind at that height and to be able to land it that soft and hit it a foot … that thing came out like a pitching wedge. It went vertical,” Reed said. “There were some things out there that were pretty cool to see. He hit a high, tight draw driver. He hit that low cut that went miles. Some of those cuts he hit off the tee today were insanely long.”
Woods’ day be- gan with a bogey on No. 1, a hole that he double bogeyed three times en route to his 2008 U.S. Open victory.
“Hopefully, one day I’ll be able to play that first hole well,” Woods joked. “I’m always nervous [on the first tee]. I care about what I do, and it was fun to feel that competitive rush again and try — to have a scorecard in my hand and try and post a number.”
LaCava, called the round “kind of what we thought it would be — a little scrappy.”
“Did I expect him to [go] bogey-less today? Of course not,” LaCava said. “I saw enough good. Clean up some of the scrappy stuff and move forward. I can’t get too deep into analyzing this after one round. I’d like to see him play multiple tournaments before I start analyzing, but everyone’s going to start analyzing everything. I get that. But let the guy play some golf and let it get better.”