U.S. Open: Tiger Woods teases followers, then falters in Spherical 1

Tiger Woods bought off to a roaring begin on Thursday at Pinehurst No. 2, making birdie to start the championship on the par-5 tenth. He briefly held a share of the lead.

Some clutch par putts adopted on the twelfth and thirteenth holes, however then the prepare started to veer off the tracks on the difficult par-4 sixteenth.

4 bogies over the subsequent six holes adopted, and immediately, Woods went from 1-under to 3-over on the drop of the dime. He in the end carded a 4-over 74.

The 15-time main winner blamed it on his poor ball putting and placing afterward.

“I didn’t hit my irons notably effectively. Didn’t putt that nice,” Woods assessed.

“Drove it on the string all day. Sadly, I simply didn’t capitalize on it.”

Woods hit 12 of 14 fairways however solely 9 greens in regulation. He misplaced greater than two strokes on method and missed loads of irons to the best. However he didn’t attempt to play aggressively and assault flag sticks, which is a necessity for fulfillment at Pinehurst No. 2.

“I used to be considerably conservative in a few of my endpoints,” Woods stated.

Photograph by David Cannon/Getty Photographs

“Then once more, I didn’t hit the ball very effectively both. It added as much as fairly a little bit of distance away from the flag. It’s not the place I wished to be on a variety of the holes. It simply ended up being that distant as a result of I wasn’t as sharp as I wanted to be.”

As a result of Woods left himself loads of actual property between his ball and the opening, he three-putted on a number of events—a simple method to drop strokes.

“This golf course is all concerning the greens. The complexes are simply so tough and so extreme that, I believe 1-under par is simply in fifth [right now]. There aren’t that many scores which can be low. It’s onerous to get the ball shut,” Woods defined.

“In most golf programs you play, you hit photographs into the place it’s feeding off of slopes into flags, whereas amassing. Right here all the pieces is repelling. It’s simply onerous to get the ball on high of the cabinets. When you miss it brief facet, it’s an auto bogey or increased. Being aggressive to a conservative line is I believe how it is advisable to play this specific golf course.”

Woods did get cheeky on the dogleg proper par-4 seventh however wound up short-siding himself into the greenside bunker. He then hit his third shot 18 ft previous the opening, as one other bogey stared him proper within the face. However he drained the comebacker to avoid wasting par. He made a number of of these momentum-saving putts on Thursday and nonetheless shot 74.

However then, he dropped one other shot on the difficult par-4 eighth, his seventeenth gap of the day.

As for a way he feels after the spherical, Woods stated his mobility is bettering.

“I’m bodily getting higher because the yr has gone on,” Woods stated.

Photograph by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Photographs

“I simply haven’t been capable of play as a lot as a result of I simply don’t need to harm myself, so I received’t have the ability to play within the main championships. It’s choose your poison, proper? Play so much with the potential of not taking part in, or not taking part in, and struggle being not as sharp.”

He now has 24 hours to arrange for his second spherical, which can start at 1:14 p.m. ET on Friday. However as a substitute of heading to the restoration room, Woods stated he want to go to the placing inexperienced to work on some issues. Maybe his son Charlie can lend a serving to hand.

“I’d prefer to hit a number of putts. My pace was not fairly there,” Woods stated.

“If I clear that up, if I get a few iron photographs not as free as I did, I’m proper there at even par. It may well go up to now the opposite method right here, the incorrect method. It’s simply so onerous to get again. It is a golf course that doesn’t quit a complete lot of birdies. It provides up a variety of bogeys and better.”

If he can clear up these errors, Woods will play the weekend. But when he fails to determine the tempo of Pinehurst’s famed ‘Turtleback Greens,’ Woods will miss the reduce, simply as he did in his final U.S. Open look at Winged Foot in 2020.

Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By way of. Make sure you try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You may observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as effectively.