Mixed bag for Woods on PGA Tour return at Riviera

It was pretty much what you’d expect from Tiger Woods in the opening round of the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club, as he looks to shake off the competitive rust that’s been steadily accumulating for the best part of a year.

“A lot of good and a lot of indifferent,” was how he described it after his round. “It was one or the other. I don’t know how many pars I had, wasn’t many. I was either making birdies or bogeys and just never really got anything consistent going today.”

Seven was the actual par count, with five birdies and six bogeys and he’d sign off on a one-over 72 that leaves him tied for 49th, clinging to the cut mark by the skin of his teeth.

On the positive side, he drove the ball well and played the four par-3s in two-under, on the negative side, he was two for eight in scrambling, missed eight of 18 greens, ranked 54th of 70 in Strokes-Gained-Approach and 47th in Strokes-Gained-Putting.

Coming back from a lengthy layoff – not counting the Hero World Challenge or PNC Championship – it’s usually the scoring clubs that take longest to fine-tune, so he’ll not be particularly concerned, but he’s going to have to tighten that up if he’s going to see weekend action.

The day began with a birdie at the first, the par-5 that’s the gentlest of openers, but a pushed approach and heavy-handed chip saw him give the shot back on two and drop another on three. One of the shots of the day lead to a birdie on the redan par-3 fourth, and he was five holes in before he recorded his first par, missing an eight-footer for birdie. He’d make one more birdie on the front, reaching the turn at -1, but his tee shot at the famous drivable par-4 10th was only fractionally off line, ending up on the downslope in a greenside bunker, leaving no option but to play well away from the flag and watch helplessly as the ball trundled off the heavily sloped green.

This lead to another bogey, but he scrapped valiantly on the back side, pouring in a six-footer for birdie on 17 that got him back to level for the day and then sent an ideal tee shot up the right side of the 18th fairway. What followed was a collector’s item, as he shanked his approach, forcing him to play a miraculous pitch between two trees but was unable to convert the resulting 15-footer, tapping in for bogey and signing for a 72.

“I struggled with the speed of the greens,” he said after. “I couldn’t believe how fast they were today even though I made a couple. I ran a bunch by the hole today, it was very stressful. But the golf course is in such perfect shape. Considering the amount of rain they’ve gotten, to get the golf course this fast is pretty impressive.”

Even 15-time major champions and 82-time PGA Tour winners get nervous, and he confirmed that he’d been feeling it, particularly in the early stages.

“Definitely nervous,” he said. “I care about how I play and certainly I was feeling the nerves starting out. I got off to a good start birdieing the first and getting right back up on the next two holes and made a couple more birdies. It was one of those days, just never really got anything consistently going and hopefully tomorrow I can clean it up.”

Asking a man of Woods’ stature about the shot on 18 was a brave move, but full credit to Golf Channel’s Kira Dixon, she did.

“Oh, definitely, I shanked it,” was Tiger’s response, “my back was spasming the last couple holes and it was locking up. I came down and it didn’t move and I presented hosel first and shanked it.

“I think sharpness, I’m just making adjustments on the fly like that and the feel for a round and how to make those adjustments, I haven’t done that in a while. As I said when we were playing here, I was getting better each and every day, but then again I haven’t played in a while again. That’s kind of the frustrating part of it.”

The late-round back spasms aside, his movement looked good, the foot and ankle held up well, but aches and pains are the norm now and the recovery sessions between rounds are almost as important as the prep work in the build-up, because tournament conditions are very different to range work at home.

“It is impossible to prepare for,” he explained. “I rely so much on experience and having done this a long time, but still having the adrenaline dump in the system, ball goes further, speed goes up, just the yardages are a little bit different than they are at home. It’s just different and that’s just a part of playing competitive golf.”