Tiger cards 1-under 71 at Memorial first round

Defending champion Tiger Woods carded five birdies and four bogeys on Thursday and finished with a 1-under-par 71 in the first round of the 38th Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. He is tied for 27th, six strokes behind leader Charl Schwartzel.

“It was probably the highest score I could have shot today,” said the No. 1-ranked Woods, who has won four of his seven starts on the PGA TOUR this year and is a five-time winner of the event.

“I hit it a lot better than my score indicates,” he said.

A late front-nine starter with Fred Couples and Keegan Bradley, Tiger hit 11 of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens in regulation and used 30 putts. Most of the low scores came earlier in the day when the greens were smoother.

“The greens were a little bit tough this afternoon,” Tiger said. “I didn’t make much. Hopefully tomorrow I can make a few more putts and shoot a lower score.”

He will also look to take better advantage of the four par-5s. On Thursday, he played them in even-par.

Woods made a nice par save at the 470-yard, par-4 first hole, where he drove into the right rough, came up 33 yards short of the green then punched a sand wedge to two feet from the cup. After a long two-putt par at the par-4 second, Tiger bogeyed the 401-yard, par-4 third. Following a nice drive, his approach shot from 117 yards finished short of the putting surface and he failed to make a seven-foot putt.

Woods gave himself good birdie looks at the 200-yard, par-3 fourth and 527-yard, par-5 fifth holes, but missed from 16 and 13 feet, respectively. He broke through with his first birdie of the round at the 447-yard, par-4 sixth, where he knocked his second shot from 134 yards to just inside six feet.

Tiger was unable to birdie the 563-yard, par-5 seventh, where he drove into the right rough, came up short-left of the green in two, gouged a sand wedge 11 feet from the pin and two-putted. But he bounced back with a nice birdie at the difficult 185-yard, par-3 eighth, nestling his tee shot nine feet from the cup.

Woods two-putted the par-4 ninth hole from 29 feet for a par to make the turn in 1-under 35.

The back nine was an adventure as Tiger carded three birdies, three bogeys and three pars. He two-putted the par-4 10th hole from 17 feet for a par. At the 567-yard, par-5 11th, Woods hit a 3-wood in the fairway and flushed his second shot from 289 yards into the center of the green and two-putted for a birdie from 25 feet.

The testy, downhill 179-yard, par-3 12th hole is fronted by water and made tougher by swirling winds. Tiger caught a gust when he hit and found the back-left bunker. He hit a good explosion shot that carried just off the putting surface and two-putted for a bogey.

At the 455-yard, par-4 13th, Woods almost regained the dropped shot, punching a 9-iron from 175 yards to seven feet behind the hole, but couldn’t convert. Tiger wasn’t going to be denied at the 363-yard, par-4 14th, where he spun a sand wedge off the higher left side of the green to 13 feet and sank the speedy right-to-left putt.

Hoping to build on the positive momentum, Woods blocked a driver into the right trees at the uphill 529-yard, par-5 15th hole and caught a good break when the ball caromed back into the fairway. After a good lay-up, Tiger flew his blind 110-yard third shot just over the back of the green, but the ball settled down into thick bluegrass rough. Faced with a nasty, downhill chip with big right-to-left break, he tried to hit one of his patented flop shots, but the ball came out heavy, 31 feet short of the pin, and he two-putted for a bogey.

After a lengthy two-putt par at the par-3 16th, Woods hit a towering 9-iron approach shot from 170 yards to 13 feet at the 478-yard, par-4 17th and buried the birdie putt.

At the uphill 444-yard, par-4 18th, his drive found the right side of the fairway but was blocked by a large tree. Tiger muscled a big cut shot from left to right from 185 yards with a 5-iron, but the ball finished short-left of the green and he was unable to get up-and-down, missing a 12-foot putt.

Woods enjoyed playing with Couples and Bradley but admitted all three were frustrated at times.

“We had our moments,” he said.

The trio begins second-round play Friday at 8:26 a.m. ET on the 10th tee.