BETHESDA, Md. — Tiger Woods was back on the PGA Tour
for the first time in more than three months Thursday and said he felt
“fantastic.”
He was talking about his back, not his game.
One day into his most recent return from injury, that’s what mattered to him.
Woods opened with two straight bogeys, made five
more bogeys in a seven-hole stretch around the turn at tough
Congressional and finally found his groove late in the opening round of
the Quicken Loans National for a 3-over 74.
Woods was tied for 83rd — only 19 players had a
higher score — and he will have to score better today if he wants to
avoid missing the cut for the first time in two years.
“I made so many little mistakes,” Woods said. “So I played a lot better than the score indicated.”
Congressional had a lot to do with that.
Two weeks after a U.S. Open that had no rough,
Congressional made it feel like one. Any shot just off the fairway was
buried, making it difficult for even the powerful players to reach the
green on some of the longer par 4s.
Greg Chalmers finished with three straight birdies
for a 66 and a one-shot lead over Ricky Barnes and Freddie Jacobson.
Defending champion Bill Haas, Patrick Reed, U.S. Open runner-up Erik
Compton and Tyrone Van Aswegen shot 68. Compton birdied his last four
holes.
“I didn’t think it was easy at all,” Chalmers said.
“I played really well, and I think anybody who plays really well can
shoot a low score.
You just have to be coming out of the fairway, and I
did that the majority of the time today.”
Only 26 players in the 120-man field broke par.
Also on Thursday:
Three tied for Senior Players lead:
PITTSBURGH — Joe Durant, David Frost and Doug Garwood sprinted to the
early lead at the Senior Players Championship, shooting 6-under 64 at
defenseless Fox Chapel. Still drying out after days of steady rain, the
par-70 layout in suburban Pittsburgh offered little resistance. Frost
and Garwood breezed through their rounds without making a bogey, and
Durant offset his lone bogey with seven birdies.
Willett, Cabrera-Bello top leaderboard in Germany: COLOGNE,
Germany — England’s Danny Willett and Spain’s Rafa Cabrera-Bello shot
8-under 64 to share the lead in the BMW International Open, while local
favorite Martin Kaymer opened with a 71 at Gut Laerchenhof in his first
round since winning the U.S. Open. Willett won the 2012 tournament at
Gut Laerchenhof.
