Tiger opens 2020 with 69
Woods 3-under at Farmers Insurance Open
SAN DIEGO – Whenever Tiger Woods returns to competitive golf after a long break, he makes sure to temper his zeal before putting a peg in the ground and then looks to discover a proper rhythm to the round as quickly as possible.
Sometimes, he’s needed a few holes to find the right tempo, sometimes he’s found it from the get-go. A few times, it’s taken him so long to find a good pace that he’s made too many mistakes to recover from.
On Thursday in his latest return after a break of five weeks, Woods needed just two holes to get in tune at Torrey Pines in his 2020 debut. On the sunsplashed, seaside resort where he’s won eight times – including the 2008 U.S. Open on a broken leg – Woods eased his way into the new year with a 3-underpar 69 on the North Course in the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open.
Setting the pace was rookie Sebastian Cappelen of Denmark, the 341stranked player in the world. After finishing in a tie for sixth in last weekend’s American Express, he continued his good play with a 66 on the tougher South Course. Also at 66 was Keegan Bradley, who played the North.
“I definitely was feeling it,” Woods said. “I missed the competition. I was trying to keep everything as calm as I possibly could. I didn’t do a very good job of that starting out; I made a quick bogey there. I felt like I fought back, and there’s a lot of positives heading to the South Course.”
After a pushed approach on the par-5 10th – his first hole of the round – and a chunked flop shot on the 11th from just in front of the green that led to a bogey, Woods didn’t miss too many shots going forward. That is, except for a chip on the 18th that had too much zip and rolled 45 feet from the hole and led to a bogey.
Other than that, he was calm, cool and collected. Looking lean and fit and displaying no hints of rust, the world No. 6 made good use of his new TaylorMade SIM driver – he spent more than 90 minutes on the back of the range Tuesday getting the club dialed in.
“I felt like the start lines were a little bit tighter, which was nice,” Woods said. “Felt like I shaped the ball well off the tees. I didn’t quite get as many fairways as I needed to today, but overall all my misses were in good spots.”
In his quest for a record 83rd PGA Tour title – he won his record-tying 82nd to stand alongside Sam Snead in the Zozo Championship in Japan in his last PGA Tour start in 2019 – Woods played with world No. 3 Jon Rahm and just behind world No. 2 Rory McIlroy and made five birdies to offset two bogeys. He also made some solid pars, including at the eighth hole where he canned a 5-footer.
“That was nice,” said Woods, who has missed the cut once here in 17 starts.
“Overall, I was pleased to shoot something in the 60s. The golf course is definitely gettable today, for sure. We all know the South is going to be the more difficult of the two courses. I could probably have gotten maybe one or two more out of my round today, but overall I felt like it was a good start, especially going into the South Course.”
Rahm, who won the Farmers in 2017, shot 68. McIlroy, who finished in a tie for fifth last year in his first Farmers Insurance Open and can overtake Brooks Koepka as the No. 1 player in the world with a victory this weekend, birdied his last hole for a 67. It was McIlroy’s first competitive round in nine weeks.
“I drove the ball well for the most part, hit a lot of good iron shots, made some good up-and-downs,” he said. “But I was a little rusty around the greens. My speed on the greens was a little off, but the more I play, that will get better.”