WGC Cadillac Championship 2014: Tiger Woods struggles again in delayed opener at Doral

The first day at the Doral TPC Blue Monster was interrupted by a severe storm, and with all but two groups still out on the course, four players remain locked the top at 3-under. Jason Dufner held the lead for most of the afternoon, rolling in four birdies on his first five holes to light up the new Gil Hanse redesigned course. But with the horn sounding just before 6 p.m. as darkness rapidly set in, Dufner decided to putt out on his final hole and ended up bogeying the 7th (his 16th hole of the day) to fall back into the four-way tie for the lead.

The biggest story coming into the biggest event of the season so far was the health of Tiger Woods. The No. 1 player in the world did not take a full swing all week, resting the back that forced him out of Sunday’s final round at the Honda Classic up the road. Woods also never got to play a practice round on the dramatically altered course, showing up Wednesday afternoon to take a tour and do some light chipping and putting with caddy Joe LaCava.

Well, Tiger’s back has held up fine, but his game remains shaky. He’s 2-over through 10 holes and currently in a tie for 47th place (out of 68 players). Woods hit some pretty good shots with his irons, but struggled with the putter on the redone Doral greens. He did not post a single red number in his 10 holes, but he had a few good opportunities.

Following the two-plus hour weather delay, Woods came out to the eighth hole and rocketed an iron up the chute to put his ball safely in the middle of the green in two at the par-5. He had a reasonable chance at an eagle, but instead three-jacked for an ugly and inexcusable par. Here’s his short birdie putt, which he doinked off the left lip of the cup:

That was from four and a half feet, the worst of a bad day with the flatstick:

The putting woes continued on No. 10, his last hole before calling it a day. Once again, Tiger sloppily three-putted to give another shot away and finish the day with an ugly bogey. Woods was just 118 yards out in two, but an awful wedge put him 50-plus feet from the cup. A terrible lag putt then left him still eight feet from the hole, and he could not convert it for par on the gettable par-5. A bad wedge shot and three putts will push any player to the bottom half of the leaderboard, and we’ve seen that kind of form around the green repeatedly from Tiger this year. The missed birdie putt at the 8th and the bogey at the 10th are a disaster for Woods on the par-5s, which he always dominates and provide his most reliable route to victory.

No birdies, two bogeys, and some loose play around and on the green. It’s just another mediocre start for Woods, who has yet to make a real impact on the leaderboard this season. The good news is that his back seemed to hold up well enough, especially through a lengthy break and rain delay, and he’s got eight more holes on Friday morning to clean things up in his first round (Also, no matter what he did, there was no way he was hitting the worst shot of the day in his group -- that distinction belonged to world No. 3 Henrik Stenson, who hit the worst shank I’ve ever seen on the PGA Tour)

This is the best field of the year, and until Jason Day withdrew Thursday morning, everyone in the top 50 was playing. There’s going to be big names and decorated players all over the leaderboard, so Woods is looking up at a lot of talent. Adam Scott, who can rip the No. 1 ranking from Tiger this week, is one shot off the pace at 2-under. Harris English is the clubhouse leader, one of just six to finish up. The ultra-talented Georgian drained birdie on the last hole of the day to pull even at 3-under. Here’s the full leaderboard from the largely incomplete first round: