Tiger finishes Round 1 of Honda Classic at 1-over-par 71
Tiger Woods worked hard on his putting prior to The Honda Classic, but wasn’t rewarded Thursday in the opening round at cloudy PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. He used 30 putts, including a three-putt, and finished with a 1-over-par 71.
“I hit it good enough to shoot probably at least three or four lower than I did,” Woods said afterward. “I had so many looks where I just missed. I just didn’t have the right speed and I need to read them a little bit better than I did today.”
Rory McIlroy fired a 63 to earn the early lead. The lift-clean-and-place rule was used due to recent rain.
An early back-nine starter with Keegan Bradley and Zach Johnson, Woods started with eight consecutive pars. His best birdie opportunity came at the par-4 13th, where he hit a nice approach shot inside 10 feet and lipped out the putt.
Tiger made a good par save at the par-4 16th, where he missed the fairway off the tee with an iron, came up 38 yards short of the green with his second shot, then nearly holed out his third, hitting a sand wedge within a foot of the cup.
At the 556-yard, par-5 18th, Woods crushed a big drive, then knocked his second shot into a greenside bunker. Tiger splashed to nine feet and made the birdie putt — his longest sink of the day — to make the turn in 1-under 34.
Followed by a large gallery that included his mother, Kultida, Woods two-putted the par-4 first hole, then double-bogeyed the 464-yard, par-4 second. He pulled his tee shot left under a palm tree, advanced the ball about 30 yards, and wound up missing a 12-foot bogey putt.
Tiger rebounded with a birdie at the 538-yard, par-5 third, where he got up and down from a greenside bunker and holed a five-foot putt. But Woods three-putted the 217-yard, par-3 fifth hole from 20 feet above the pin for a bogey. He then also bogeyed the par-4 eighth, where he pulled his approach shot left of the green and failed to get up and down, missing a 10-foot putt.
Woods closed his round on a positive note at the 421-yard, par-4 ninth. Following a good drive, he nestled his second shot from 174 yards about nine feet from the cup and made the birdie putt.
Tiger hit eight of 14 fairways and 12 of 18 greens in regulation.
“I hit it good starting out,” Woods said. “Hit it kind of scrappy in the middle and then hit it good at the end.”
On the plus side, Woods birdied both par-5s. At last month’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, he failed to birdie any of the par-5s in three rounds.
Tiger begins second-round play Friday at 12:35 p.m. ET on the first tee with Bradley and Johnson. He will look to adjust to the slower greens.
“They were as slippery as can be last year, [whereas] now they are sticky and slower,” said Woods.
