Tiger fires 69, trails by 5 shots
LOS ANGELES — The scene was similar to the last time Tiger Woods played against the world’s best. Fans packed onto every balcony on every level of the Riviera clubhouse Thursday, all of them straining for a rare sight of golf’s biggest star.
Woods had them cheering even louder at the end.
He put on a show in his first competition in seven months, closing with three straight birdies and one big smile for a 2-under 69 in the Genesis Invitational, leaving him five shots behind Max Homa and Keith Mitchell.
Woods went bunker-to-fair-way-to-bunker on the 10th hole and had to make an 8-footer to save bogey. He was wild off the tee for another bogey on the 12th, leaving him over par on a mild, breezy afternoon.
And then he looked like the Woods of old at the end — a tee shot to 5 feet on the par-3 16th, another birdie from 25 feet on the par-5 17th and then a big drive — a few yards longer than Rory McIlroy — on the 18th that set up 9-iron to 7 feet.
His legs held up fine, though still sore. The final task was making it up those 52 steps toward the clubhouse to sign his card. The next step is a quick turnaround. Woods finished about 5 p.m. local time, and faced a 7:24 a.m. start to the second round.
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NFL: In Las Vegas, Nevada, a grand jury in Nevada has indicted New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara, Cincinnati Bengals newly acquired cornerback Chris Lammons and two others on two criminal counts in connection with an alleged beating at a Las Vegas nightclub last February.
SOCCER: In Orlando, Fla., Mallory Swanson scored a pair of first-half goals and the United States beat Canada 2-0 Thursday night in a SheBelieves Cup match clouded by a labor dispute between the Canadian players and their federation. The Canadian women wore purple shirts during the pregame national anthems that read “Enough Is Enough.” Before kickoff, U.S. players linked arms with their Canadian counterparts in the center circle in a show of solidarity. The fourteam round-robin SheBelieves Cup moves to Nashville, Tennessee, on Sunday, where the U.S. will play Japan.