Tiger Woods has completed his first nine holes of the 2014 season, and it was an underwhelming start at Torrey Pines. Tiger went off the 10th tee at the more difficult South Course, a layout he’s owned during his career. But even on the tougher of the two courses, Woods will be disappointed with an outward even-par 36.
2014 Farmers Insurance Open leaderboard: Tiger Woods shaky through season-opening 9 holes
They’re off in La Jolla, and Tiger has failed to make much of a move early in his first round of the new season.
Stephen Dunn
Tiger struggled to get any momentum on the front side, as an early birdie on his second hole of the season was quickly followed with some wild plays off the tee and a struggle to gauge the speed of the greens. Tiger isn’t always the fastest starter, but he obviously loves playing from ahead -- grabbing that 36-hole lead and then slowly choking out the rest of the field over the weekend. At No. 2, he stuck a brilliant approach shot to just five feet to post that first red number.
Woods, however, would give that shot back just three holes later with some sloppy work around the green at No. 5. Tiger put his approach shot in a greenside bunker, and then barely managed to get his ball up and out on the putting surface. He had a lengthy putt to save par, but missed the 16-footer to fall back to even.
Unfortunately for Woods, he’s also even through his first two par-5s of the week. That’s historically been his most reliable path to victory at this event, and he piles up birdies and eagles to run out to an insurmountable lead, as Emily Kay noted this week in a piece outlining his dominance at this event. After a par at No. 6, Woods started No. 9 with a wild drive that almost went off the course:
Tiger back. https://t.co/IdsMrDZg49
— Brendan (@BrendanPorath) January 23, 2014 He still managed to rip a cut fairway wood off some trampled down ground to get back in play, and saved par after a disappointing run at birdie from the back fringe. He is five shots back at the midpoint of his opening round.
Unsurprisingly, the early top 10 is populated by players starting on the much shorter and easier North Course. San Diego resident Phil Mickelson started out on the North, a course he’s helping redesign, and he’s just 2-under through his first 14 holes. Woods will get his rips in on the North Course on Friday afternoon.
Here’s the current leaderboard early in the first round (with the course each player is playing in parentheses):
| Place | Player | Score |
| T1 | Pat Perez (SC) | -5 |
| T1 | Stewart Cink (NC) | -5 |
| T1 | Jason Day (NC) | -5 |
| T4 | Steven Bowditch (NC) | -4 |
| T4 | Tyrone Van Aswegen (NC) | -4 |
| T4 | Gary Woodland (NC) | -4 |
| T4 | Marc Leishman (NC) | -4 |
| T4 | Jhonattan Vegas (NC) | -4 |
| T9 | Charley Hoffman (SC) | -3 |
| T9 | Nicolas Colsaerts (NC) | -3 |
| T9 | David Lynn (NC) | -3 |
| T9 | Erik Compton (NC) | -3 |
| T9 | Keegan Bradley (NC) | -3 |
| T9 | Jonathan Byrd (NC) | -3 |
| T9 | Chris Williams (NC) | -3 |
| T9 | Brian Stuard (SC) | -3 |
| T9 | Nick Watney (NC) | -3 |
| T18 | Mark Calcavecchia (NC) | -2 |
| T18 | Graham DeLaet (NC) | -2 |
| T18 | Tim Herron (NC) | -2 |
| T18 | Charles Howell III (NC) | -2 |
| T18 | Hunter Mahan (NC) | -2 |
| T18 | Phil Mickelson (NC) | -2 |
| T18 | Bubba Watson (NC) | -2 |
| T18 | Brendon Todd (NC) | -2 |
| T18 | Greg Owen (NC) | -2 |
| T18 | Matt Bettencourt (NC) | -2 |
| T18 | Trevor Immelman (NC) | -2 |
| T18 | Roberto Castro (NC) | -2 |
| T18 | D.A. Points (NC) | -2 |
| T18 | John Merrick (NC) | -2 |
| T18 | Sang-Moon Bae (NC) | -2 |
| T18 | Harrison Frazar (NC) | -2 |
| T18 | Kevin Tway (SC) | -2 |
| T18 | Jim Herman (NC) | -2 |
| T18 | Seung-Yul Noh (NC) | -2 |
| T37 | Bobby Gates (NC) | -1 |
| T37 | Justin Thomas (NC) | -1 |
| T37 | Tag Ridings (SC) | -1 |
| T37 | Kevin Foley (NC) | -1 |
| T37 | Bronson La'Cassie (NC) | -1 |
| T37 | James Driscoll (SC) | -1 |
| T37 | Billy Mayfair (NC) | -1 |
| T37 | Spencer Levin (NC) | -1 |
| T37 | Billy Horschel (SC) | -1 |
| T37 | Martin Laird (NC) | -1 |
| T37 | Vijay Singh (NC) | -1 |
| T37 | Jordan Spieth (SC) | -1 |
| T37 | Will MacKenzie (SC) | -1 |
| T37 | Russell Knox (SC) | -1 |
| T37 | Hideto Tanihara (NC) | -1 |
| T37 | Tim Wilkinson (NC) | -1 |
| T37 | Brad Fritsch (NC) | -1 |
| T37 | Michael Putnam (NC) | -1 |
| T55 | Justin Hicks (SC) | E |
| T55 | Robert Garrigus (NC) | E |
| T55 | Lee Westwood (SC) | E |
| T55 | Aaron Baddeley (NC) | E |
| T55 | Scott Stallings (SC) | E |
| T55 | Tommy Gainey (NC) | E |
| T55 | Shawn Stefani (NC) | E |
| T55 | Wes Roach (NC) | E |
| T55 | Andrew Svoboda (NC) | E |
| T55 | Michael Kim (NC) | E |
| T55 | Martin Flores (SC) | E |
| T55 | Morgan Hoffmann (SC) | E |
| T55 | Rocco Mediate (SC) | E |
| T55 | Hideki Matsuyama (NC) | E |
| T55 | Charlie Wi (NC) | E |
| T55 | David Hearn (NC) | E |
| T55 | Scott Brown (NC) | E |
| T55 | Tiger Woods (SC) | E |
| T55 | Davis Love III (NC) | E |
| T55 | J.B. Holmes (SC) | E |
| T55 | Peter Malnati (NC) | E |
| T55 | Robert Streb (SC) | E |
| T55 | Riley Wheeldon (NC) | E |
| T78 | Cameron Tringale (SC) | 1 |
| T78 | Richard H. Lee (NC) | 1 |
| T78 | Heath Slocum (NC) | 1 |
| T78 | Brandt Snedeker (NC) | 1 |
| T78 | Bill Haas (SC) | 1 |
| T78 | Jonas Blixt (NC) | 1 |
| T78 | Kevin Chappell (SC) | 1 |
| T78 | Hudson Swafford (NC) | 1 |
| T78 | Chesson Hadley (SC) | 1 |
| T78 | Michael Block (SC) | 1 |
| T78 | Will Claxton (NC) | 1 |
| T78 | Scott Gardiner (NC) | 1 |
| T78 | Fabian Gomez (SC) | 1 |
| T78 | Jamie Lovemark (SC) | 1 |
| T78 | Will Strickler (SC) | 1 |
| T78 | Camilo Villegas (SC) | 1 |
| T78 | Daniel Chopra (NC) | 1 |
| T78 | Victor Dubuisson (NC) | 1 |
| T78 | John Huh (SC) | 1 |
| T78 | Justin Leonard (SC) | 1 |
| T78 | Jimmy Walker (SC) | 1 |
| T78 | Lucas Glover (SC) | 1 |
| T78 | Nicholas Thompson (SC) | 1 |
| T78 | Ben Martin (SC) | 1 |
| T78 | Danny Lee (SC) | 1 |
| T78 | Alex Aragon (NC) | 1 |
| T104 | John Rollins (NC) | 2 |
| T104 | K.J. Choi (SC) | 2 |
| T104 | Andres Romero (SC) | 2 |
| T104 | Mark Anderson (NC) | 2 |
| T104 | Miguel Angel Carballo (NC) | 2 |
| T104 | Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (NC) | 2 |
| T104 | David Lingmerth (SC) | 2 |
| T104 | Will Wilcox (SC) | 2 |
| T104 | Troy Merritt (NC) | 2 |
| T104 | Ryo Ishikawa (SC) | 2 |
| T104 | Max Homa (NC) | 2 |
| T115 | Troy Matteson (SC) | 3 |
| T115 | Blake Adams (SC) | 3 |
| T115 | Matt Jones (SC) | 3 |
| T115 | Rory Sabbatini (SC) | 3 |
| T115 | Johnson Wagner (SC) | 3 |
| T115 | Geoff Ogilvy (SC) | 3 |
| T115 | Paul Goydos (SC) | 3 |
| T115 | Ben Crane (SC) | 3 |
| T115 | Jim Renner (NC) | 3 |
| T115 | John Peterson (SC) | 3 |
| T115 | Lee Williams (NC) | 3 |
| T115 | Alex Prugh (SC) | 3 |
| T115 | Joe Durant (SC) | 3 |
| T115 | D.H. Lee (SC) | 3 |
| T115 | Brendan Steele (SC) | 3 |
| T115 | Ian Poulter (SC) | 3 |
| T115 | Ben Curtis (SC) | 3 |
| T132 | Brendon de Jonge (SC) | 4 |
| T132 | Josh Teater (SC) | 4 |
| T132 | Robert Allenby (SC) | 4 |
| T132 | Chris Riley (SC) | 4 |
| T132 | Edward Loar (SC) | 4 |
| T132 | Chris Smith (SC) | 4 |
| T132 | Freddie Jacobson (SC) | 4 |
| T132 | Dicky Pride (SC) | 4 |
| T132 | Rickie Fowler (SC) | 4 |
| T132 | J.J. Henry (SC) | 4 |
| T132 | Andrew Loupe (SC) | 4 |
| T132 | Brice Garnett (NC) | 4 |
| T132 | Chad Collins (SC) | 4 |
| T145 | Bryce Molder (SC) | 5 |
| T145 | Luke Guthrie (SC) | 5 |
| T145 | Y.E. Yang (SC) | 5 |
| T145 | Derek Ernst (NC) | 5 |
| T145 | Stuart Appleby (SC) | 5 |
| T145 | Mike Weir (SC) | 5 |
| T151 | Kyle Stanley (SC) | 6 |
| T151 | James Hahn (SC) | 6 |
| T151 | Kevin Kisner (SC) | 6 |
| T151 | Charlie Beljan (SC) | 6 |
| 155 | Russell Henley (SC) | 7 |
| 156 | Chad Campbell (SC) | 9 |
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