JAM SESSION
Tiger proves once more he can work out of trouble
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Through one fully completed tournament and one round of this week’s Genesis Open, this is what Tiger Woods has been most proficient in: averting scorecard disaster.
Woods has proven, through four rounds at the Farmers Insurance Open three weeks ago and Thursday’s opening round at Riviera, where he shot a 1over 72, he is expert at keeping his rounds from going sideways.
That, of course, is not good enough to put him in contention at the moment. But the good news is no one’s running away with the tournament either, with Tony Finau and Patrick Cantlay tied for the lead at 5-under when the round was suspended due to darkness. So Woods, tied for 64th, is only six shots back, which hardly is a daunting deficit.
“He’s doing what he’s always done … he’s getting it around,” said Justin Thomas, who along with Rory McIlroy was grouped with Woods on Thursday. “He’s obviously not driving it well. He’s not hitting the shots that he wants to. But he got around in 1-over on a pretty tough golf course. I think when he was really playing and not on all this time off, today’s round could have been 1- or 2-under.’’
Woods, who began his round on No. 10, was tested early. After a birdie on No. 10, his tee shot on No. 11 ended up in a eucalyptus tree well right of the fairway, and it never left the tree.
The ball stayed lodged there, and Woods was forced to take a cart back to the tee and re-hit his drive.
“I wasn’t very happy … eucalyp- tus don’t normally keep golf balls, but this one did,” Woods said.
“He was unlucky that ball was stuck up the tree on 11, that should never happen,” McIlroy said.
“It’s going to sound really weird, but I swear as that ball’s going over there, I thought in my head, ‘I hope that doesn’t get stuck in a tree,’ ” Thomas said. “Then he’s driving back to the tee [to re-hit], I’m like, ‘Holy crap, it actually did get stuck in a tree.’ That was a very bad break.”
The bad break led to a double bogey for Woods and erased the good feeling of that opening birdie on No. 10. A bogey on No. 12 left Woods at 2-over through three holes and in early crisis mode.
“I was at 1-under early, [my] first hole, and all of a sudden, I went double bogey-bogey, I was like, ‘Oh, man, here we go, I’ve got to somehow turn this thing around,’ ” Woods said. “And I was able to do that. I fought hard to try and keep that momentum going. I really hung in there well.”
After hitting only 17-of-56 fairways at Torrey Pines (an average of just four per round), Woods hit 8-of-14 Thursday. He hit just 7-of-18 greens and had 25 putts.
“I’m not that far off to really putting some good numbers out there,” Woods said. “I’ve got to clean up my card. Too many bogeys out there. If I can just clean that up, I can start making my way up the board.”
McIlroy sees what Woods is seeing: progress.
“I played with him in ’12 and ’13, and he played great then,” McIlroy said. “It’s not that long ago. It doesn’t feel like five years ago that he won five tournaments and was the Player of the Year. So … he remembers how to do this, and his body’s allowing him to do this, and there’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll make a little bit of noise this year.”