Golf

2014 Quicken Loans National: Greg Chalmers leads, Tiger Woods opens with a 74

Tiger Woods struggled some in his return to competitive golf on Thursday, but a few players did find more success, including Greg Chalmers who leads at 5-under.

by Mark Sandritter

Jun 26, 2014, 10:57 PM UTC

Rob Carr

All eyes were on Tiger Woods during the first round of the Quicken Loans National, but he and a host of other notable players got off to a rough start. You have to scroll a fair way down the leaderboard to find Woods’ name along with Jordan Spieth, Jason Dufner and others. The entire field is looking up at Greg Chalmers after he opened with a 5-under round of 66.

Congressional wasn’t very welcoming in Woods’ return as he began the round with back-to-back bogeys. He wasn’t sharp early, especially around the greens. With a rusty short game causing problems, Woods made the turn at 39, four shots over par. He dropped to 6-over at one point, before finally settling in some. He recorded three birdies coming in, to salvage a 3-over round of 74. While the round was far from vintage Tiger Woods and he will have plenty of work to do to even make the cut, Woods said his back felt great and he was able to let it go off the tee. That and his strong finish to the round may give him some momentum heading into Friday.

Woods was far from the only notable name having issues. His playing partners, Spieth and Jason Day, also struggled. Spieth matched Woods at 3-over while Day shot a 2-over 73. Ernie Els is also 2-over while Jason Dufner and Justin Rose are 3-over. Keegan Bradley came in with a 4-over 75. The course wasn’t very forgiving in the first round and Geoff Ogilvy went as far as saying Congressional was more difficult on Thursday than it was when it hosted the U.S. Open in 2011.

Geoff Ogilvy: "It's definitely harder than it was in the U.S. Open." Greens receptive today because of last night's rain, but rough thick.
— Barry Svrluga (@barrysvrluga) June 26, 2014

That doesn’t mean there weren’t good scores out there, however. Chalmers carded six birdies on his way to a 5-under round of 66. Ricky Barnes and Freddie Jacobson both came in at 4-under while Patrick Reed and defending champion Bill Haas are among the players tied at 3-under. A total of 26 players out of the 120-player field finished the first round in the red.

If the cut were made following the first round, it would be 2-over, leaving Woods and some of the other big names a little ground to make up during the second round. Here is a complete look at the scoreboard through 18 holes.

Place	Player	Score	1st Round
1	Greg Chalmers	-5	66
T2	Ricky Barnes	-4	67
T2	Freddie Jacobson	-4	67
T4	Patrick Reed	-3	68
T4	Erik Compton	-3	68
T4	Bill Haas	-3	68
T4	Tyrone van Aswegen	-3	68
T8	Hudson Swafford	-2	69
T8	Nick Watney	-2	69
T8	George McNeill	-2	69
T8	Billy Hurley III	-2	69
T8	Spencer Levin	-2	69
T8	Retief Goosen	-2	69
T8	K.J. Choi	-2	69
T8	Michael Putnam	-2	69
T16	Daniel Summerhays	-1	70
T16	Cameron Tringale	-1	70
T16	Tim Wilkinson	-1	70
T16	Stuart Appleby	-1	70
T16	Brandt Snedeker	-1	70
T16	Andres Romero	-1	70
T16	Morgan Hoffmann	-1	70
T16	Geoff Ogilvy	-1	70
T16	Marc Leishman	-1	70
T16	Billy Horschel	-1	70
T16	Oliver Goss	-1	70
T27	Roberto Castro	E	71
T27	Andrew Svoboda	E	71
T27	Brendon de Jonge	E	71
T27	Kevin Chappell	E	71
T27	Chesson Hadley	E	71
T27	Ted Potter, Jr.	E	71
T27	Vijay Singh	E	71
T27	James Driscoll	E	71
T27	Jason Bohn	E	71
T27	Angel Cabrera	E	71
T27	Hunter Mahan	E	71
T27	Charles Howell III	E	71
T27	Matt Every	E	71
T27	Rory Sabbatini	E	71
T27	Bo Van Pelt	E	71
T27	Brady Watt	E	71
T43	Ben Martin	1	72
T43	Peter Hanson	1	72
T43	John Rollins	1	72
T43	Brian Davis	1	72
T43	Robert Allenby	1	72
T43	Davis Love III	1	72
T43	Carl Pettersson	1	72
T43	John Huh	1	72
T43	Webb Simpson	1	72
T43	Brendon Todd	1	72
T43	J.B. Holmes	1	72
T43	Gary Woodland	1	72
T43	Chad Collins	1	72
T43	Jim Renner	1	72
T43	Josh Teater	1	72
T43	Charley Hoffman	1	72
T43	Scott Brown	1	72
T43	Heath Slocum	1	72
T43	Bud Cauley	1	72
T62	Justin Hicks	2	73
T62	Arjun Atwal	2	73
T62	James Hahn	2	73
T62	Danny Lee	2	73
T62	Robert Garrigus	2	73
T62	Kyle Stanley	2	73
T62	Jhonattan Vegas	2	73
T62	Seung-yul Noh	2	73
T62	Jason Day	2	73
T62	Steven Bowditch	2	73
T62	Jonathan Byrd	2	73
T62	Ryan Palmer	2	73
T62	Brian Harman	2	73
T62	D.H. Lee	2	73
T62	Charlie Wi	2	73
T62	Martin Flores	2	73
T62	Russell Knox	2	73
T62	Sean O'Hair	2	73
T62	Woody Austin	2	73
T62	Ernie Els	2	73
T62	Patrick Rodgers	2	73
T83	Mike Weir	3	74
T83	John Merrick	3	74
T83	Tiger Woods	3	74
T83	Jordan Spieth	3	74
T83	Derek Ernst	3	74
T83	Andrew Loupe	3	74
T83	Nicholas Thompson	3	74
T83	Shawn Stefani	3	74
T83	Robert Streb	3	74
T83	Brendan Steele	3	74
T83	Troy Merritt	3	74
T83	Trevor Immelman	3	74
T83	J.J. Henry	3	74
T83	Stewart Cink	3	74
T83	Y.E. Yang	3	74
T83	Jason Dufner	3	74
T83	Justin Rose	3	74
T83	Brice Garnett	3	74
T83	Richard Lee	3	74
T102	Johnson Wagner	4	75
T102	Camilo Villegas	4	75
T102	Kevin Kisner	4	75
T102	Scott Stallings	4	75
T102	Charlie Beljan	4	75
T102	Ben Curtis	4	75
T102	Martin Laird	4	75
T102	Keegan Bradley	4	75
T102	Russell Henley	4	75
T102	Wes Roach	4	75
T112	Mark Wilson	5	76
T112	Aaron Baddeley	5	76
T114	Harrison Frazar	6	77
T114	Patrick Cantlay	6	77
T114	Bryce Molder	6	77
T117	Sang-Moon Bae	7	78
T117	Pat Perez	7	78
T117	Will MacKenzie	7	78
120	David Lingmerth	8	79