Woods fires 71 in return to Open

really,” he said. “It’s Tiger Woods. How would you feel playing with him?”

Knox had nearly five hours with Woods and Hideki Matsuyama.

“I wanted to chat with him a little bit,” Knox said. “Obviously, Hideki is not the easiest person to talk to with the language barrier. So I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m out here with Tiger for five hours. Might as well talk to him.’”

He also was trying to beat him, if not Thursday, for the week. He feels that way about every player.

“He wants to beat me. I’m a threat to him. I could make him not win this tournament,” Knox said. “I didn’t expect him to help me through or whatever. He’s trying to bury me by 20 shots, as I’m doing with him.” shallow enough for him to play the shot.

“There was one little rock behind the ball. If that little rock had not been there, I’m sure I could have got on the green,” he said. “I was hoping it was going to come out fairly straight. The ball hit the rock as I hit it with the club, and it came out left, and then it went pretty much in the bunker again. I didn’t have a stance. I couldn’t get to the flag. And I ended up making a good 5, I guess.”

The Barry Burn first comes into play on the 10th hole. It more famously crosses the fairway on the 18th hole. That’s where Jean Van de Velde was when he threw away the Open in 1999. Padraig Harrington went into it twice in 2007 when he lost a one-stroke lead to Garcia before beating him in a playoff. Neither could play out of the water.

With the water shallow, Garcia made it look easy.

“I played (out of the burn) before,” he said. “I’m sure it won’t be the last time.”