For a brief moment, it was a walk down memory lane as the name ‘Woods’ appeared at the top of the U.S. Open leaderboard. Unfortunately for Woods and his legion of fans, that was after one hole and and back-to-back bogeys on 16 and 17 – he started the day on 10 – saw him slip the wrong side of par and he’d never find his way back into red figures.
Three more bogeys on the first four on the front side saw him drop to +4, and though he’d get back to +3 with a two-putt birdie on the par-5 fifth, a final bogey at eight pushed him back to four-over which is where he finished the day.
“I was somewhat conservative in some of my end points,” assessed the 15-time major champion after his round. “Then again, I didn’t hit the ball very well either. It added upped to quite a bit of distance away from the flag. It’s not where I wanted to be on a lot of the holes. It just ended up being that far away because I wasn’t as sharp as I needed to be.”
Woods’ driving and long iron-play was impressive, but it was with the mid- and short-irons that he struggled, losing more than two strokes to the field on approach and half-a-shot on the greens, but though he admitted to lacking sharpness, he said that that’s the price he has to pay to ensure that he’s fit to tee it up in the tournament to begin with.
“I’m physically getting better as the year has gone on,” he explained. “I just haven’t been able to play as much because I just don’t want to hurt myself pre, then I won’t be able to play in the major championships.
“It’s pick your poison, right? Play a lot with the potential of not playing, or not playing and fight being not as sharp.”
Despite Patrick Cantlay covering the 18 holes in 65 to take the clubhouse lead at five-under, scoring was tough overall and Woods is likely to be in the top 100 by day’s end and still in with a chance of making the cut, but he knows that it’s not a golf course to get too aggressive on.
“This golf course is all about the greens,” Woods said. “The complexes are just so difficult and so severe that, I mean, I think 1-under par is only in fifth. There aren’t that many scores that are low.
“It’s hard to get the ball close. In most golf courses you play, you hit shots into where it’s feeding off of slopes into flags, whereas collecting. Here everything is repelling. It’s just hard to get the ball on top of the shelves.
“You know if you miss it short side, it’s an auto bogey or higher. Being aggressive to a conservative line is I think how you need to play this particular golf course.”
Woods headed off to the practice range to work on his irons, which is encouraging from a physical health point of view, considering that he’d been worried of stiffening up in the car ride back to the clubhouse.
“Well, I’m hoping I don’t get too tight in the car ride back,” he’d said, “maybe I can hit a few. I can get tight in air-conditioning. Get back there, there’s usually no point.
“I’d like to hit a few putts. My speed was not quite there. I think I 3-putted, what, two or three times today. If I clean that up, if I get a couple iron shots not as loose as I did, I’m right there at even par.
“It can go so far the other way here, the wrong way. It’s just so hard to get back. This is a golf course that doesn’t give up a whole lot of birdies. It gives up a lot of bogeys and higher.
“I thought I did the one thing I needed to do today, which is drive the ball well. I did that, I just didn’t capitalize on any of it.”
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