Key to scoring is finding fairways, greens at TPC Sawgrass

Tiger Woods looks to continue his good play this week in THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Competing for the first time since tying for fourth at the Masters Tournament last month, he has won three of six starts on the PGA TOUR this year and remains the top-ranked player in the world.

Woods, who attended a Met Gala dinner in New York on Monday night with girlfriend Lindsey Vonn to help her promote a new perfume and makeup line, worked hard on the practice range Tuesday and played four holes.

“Very pleased,” he said afterward. “I feel like I’ve done some very good work, basically a continuation of what I’ve done for the last couple months. I took a week off after the Masters, and then started kind of training and getting back into it the last week and a half.”

Tiger admitted it took about a week to move past the disappointment of not winning his fifth green jacket at Augusta National. In the second round, he hit the pin with his third shot at the par-5 15th hole, and the ball ricocheted into the water. Tiger managed to get up-and-down for what he thought was a bogey, but was later penalized two strokes for making an illegal drop. The infraction was called in by a television viewer.

“Unfortunately, I hit a good shot and got a bad break,” Woods said. “But I still had an opportunity over the next 36 holes to get it back, and I just didn’t do it.”

In retrospect, the unlucky bounce at No. 15 probably cost him a chance to win the tournament.

“I had a lot of momentum going at the time,” he said. “I think I was tied with Fred [Couples], and I thought I’d stuffed it in there, and I thought it was going to be a birdie and I could take the lead there and maybe sneak one in on the final three holes, and basically start building a lead in the tournament, and it kind of turned the other way with a good shot.”

Once Woods was made aware of his incorrect drop, he owned up to it immediately. Not that he is thrilled with the process.

“I don’t ever see myself calling in and saying Kobe [Bryant] traveled or things like that, or that an offensive lineman held, but it’s our sport, and that’s what we’ve done and we’ve accepted,” Woods said. “Certain groups are going to get more heat than others just because they’re on TV. It is what it is.”

Tiger said Australian Adam Scott was a worthy champion.

“I think it’s fantastic,” he said. “We’ve seen what he can do. We’ve seen how close he was last year at the British Open, and if it wasn’t for a rough finish, then he would have been the holder of the Claret Jug. It wasn’t a surprise to any of us that he won a major championship.”

Woods won THE PLAYERS Championship in 2001 and said he’s pleasantly surprised designer Pete Dye’s famed Stadium Course is in such good shape. Last week, nine inches of rain fell — five during a 36-hour span — temporarily flooding all 18 holes.

“They’ve done an amazing job of getting this place dry and playable,” Woods said.

The key to scoring is finding fairways and greens.

“It’s one of those courses where they’ve got some tough lines, and if you’re not playing well, you’re going to get exposed,” he said. “You have to drive the ball really well, and then on top of that, now that it’s gone to Bermuda, these greens have gotten a lot more fiery coming into them. So it makes it even more important to hit the ball in these fairways to have a chance to spin the ball.”

Errant approach shots can prove difficult to recover from.

“You miss these greens at all, you’ve got some of the weirdest, funky little shots that you’ll ever face,” Woods said. “It’s really hard to get the ball up-and-down.”

As for Monday’s gala, Tiger is an avid Oakland Raiders fan, but enjoyed sitting with New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and his wife Gisele Bundchen. Asked if he would have attended a red carpet event during the week of a major, Woods cracked, “Yeah, I have. I’ve gone to the Golf Writers dinner at Augusta.”

Laughs all around.

Tiger tees off Thursday at 1:49 p.m. ET on the first tee with defending champion Matt Kuchar and Brandt Snedeker.