Just when it looked as if the “fresh” swing changes Tiger Woods made in his eight-week layoff since the Masters were taking hold in Thursday’s opening round of The Players Championship, he goes and flat out fans a 4-iron into the water off the tee on the par-3 eighth.
Tiger Woods over-par after front 9 full of shaky shots at The Players
Nothing is easy for Tiger Woods in Thursday’s opening round at The Players Championship.
Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
We mean, a serious near-whiff from the two-time Players winner, who missed the green on the 210-yard hole by a mile. He was one of a very few to find that particular hazard.
Tiger. Fanned pic.twitter.com/lwOkQwGWAV
— Brendan Porath (@BrendanPorath) May 7, 2015 The 8th hole has been played 1,903 times in @THEPLAYERSChamp since 2003. Tiger is just 12th to hit it into water in span (0.6%).
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGC) May 7, 2015 A double-bogey on eighth ensued, followed by a pulled tee shot on the ninth, though he was somehow able to birdie No. 9 to go out in 1-over 37
Woods had everybody guessing about how he would perform in Thursday’s opening round at TPC Sawgrass. The former world No. 1 started by yanking his first two tee shots way left. Golf Channel had ProTracer on the pull at the 2nd tee, which didn’t look pretty for Woods.
After those two hooks left, he found the fairway with a metal wood on the fourth hole and a cut shot with the driver on No. 5. He took the big dog out on No. 7 and belted it center cut, so Tiger’s driver was trending up as he made the turn at 1-over 37.
Tiger stuffed one to two feet at the 4th for his first birdie of the day, and it looked like the early damage from those wild tee balls would be mitigated through his front nine.
This shot set up Tiger Woods' first birdie of the day at TPC Sawgrass. http://t.co/702iWIO1Yo
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 7, 2015 The jury was out on his short game. Woods appeared to work his way back from the chipping yips with his wedges at last month’s Masters. Through nine holes on Thursday, though, he relied on his putter to get him to the greens from tight lies at TPC Sawgrass, with mixed results.
His putt for par on the par-4 1st did not even sniff the hole. He drilled his first birdie on the outgoing nine on the par-4 4th, but watched several putts come up short. Tiger, no fan of balky greens, complained about the pace even before kickoff.
“I was a little surprised at how soft the golf course was, and it is obviously slow as of now,” Woods said in his pre-Players presser. “It’s only Tuesday, but I’m sure it’ll speed up and the golf course will get faster. But I was surprised to see it play more normally how it was back in March. It was very soft and very wet as of now.”
Stay tuned for more on the sluggish putting surfaces.
But that 4-iron, Tiger. WTF?
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