Tiger Woods, who was competing in one of his favorite tournaments at his favorite course in the world, displayed significant rust on way to a 6-over 78 in the opening round of the 150th Open Championship on Thursday at St. Andrews. Woods played the course for the first time since the third round of the PGA Championship in May, and his total score over the 18 holes was the best of his professional career. It matched the 78 he made at the Old Course during the 1995 Open's final round as an amateur.
The 15-time major champion received a terrible break off the tee, his ball found a rut in the center of the first fairway, and he then hit his approach shot into the burn in front of the green, precisely as he did in the opening round of 2015 Open at St. Andrews.
Woods recorded a double bogey after failing to recover after taking a drop. From there, it did not really get any better.
No matter how hard you fight, sometimes in a round it just appears to go that way and never seems to turn around, according to Woods. "And then I make matters worse by playing the greens too slowly. I struck the ball in the right places, but I occasionally left myself excellent putts at the right angles, which I blew."
After consecutive bogeys on holes Nos. 3 and 4, which placed Woods at 4 over following his opening four holes, it appeared as though the 46-year-old was finally coming into his own after two straight pars. But shockingly, Woods made a catastrophic error again when his tee ball on the quick par-4 seventh reached the fairway bunker on the quick par-4 twelve, resulting in yet another double bogey.
As if the mountain wasn't high enough to start the week, Woods' performance through the first seven holes made it much harder to climb. He had a rough start, but he persevered by making back-to-back birdies at the turn. Woods would have moved to the drivable 12th at 4 over after reaching the challenging par-3 11th in regulation with a two-putt par, giving himself a chance to finish the round in regulation.
Any hopes of a comeback were instead dashed by a clumsy three-putt attempt, and his round was made much worse when his short birdie attempt on the 12th went horribly awry. Following that, Woods' final six holes were a mix of everything as he recorded two bogeys, three pars, and a birdie for a total score of 6 over.
The most discouraging factor, according to Woods, is the overall score. It appears that I didn't strike it all that hard. I did, in fact, have a poor spin on the greens. However, I didn't think I struck it all that hard. I had difficulties or just experienced some strange occurrences.
"It's just how things are. Both this golf course and links golf are similar. I had the opportunity to turn it around and get it moving in the right direction, but I chose not to."
Tiger will have to work hard if he wants to play into the weekend as he did at the PGA Championship and the Masters. He will need to take advantage of calmer morning conditions to secure two more strolls around the Old Course at St. Andrews because the anticipated cut line is at even par.
"The goal was to be well enough to play, therefore this was always scheduled. I am. Thursday, I simply didn't do a good job at it "said Woods.
Kyle Porter, Patrick McDonald, and Rick Gehman discuss the events of Thursday at the Open Championship. The Early Edge may be downloaded and followed on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
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