Tiger opens BMW Championship with 5-under 66
For a man who fashioned seven birdies and shot a 5-under-par 66 in his first competitive round on the course, Tiger Woods wasn’t thrilled. He knows he could have gone low.
“I’m not exactly real happy,” he said Thursday after the opening round of the BMW Championship at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, Ill., the third of four FedExCup Playoffs events. “I played well, just didn’t get much out of the round.”
Tiger missed three putts inside five feet and failed to birdie any of the three par-5s. He also recorded two three-putts on the mostly warm, breezy day.
“I certainly wasted a lot of shots out there,” said Woods, who is tied for third, three strokes behind leader Brandt Snedeker.
Conditions cooled off late in the round, and a few rain drops fell.
“It was tricky,” Woods said. “Towards the end, the temperature started dropping a little bit. Most of the day, the ball was traveling. The greens were soft and receptive, so you could fire at almost every flag.”
Tiger hit 15 of 18 greens in regulation — second best in the 70-player field — and found 10 of 14 fairways. He finished with 28 putts, but missed par attempts from 2 1/2 feet at the fourth hole and just inside three feet at the sixth, and then failed to convert a five-foot birdie try at the eighth.
Woods entered the week in second place in the FedExCup standings. He played with Sweden’s Henrik Stenson, who leads by 14 points, and Aussie Adam Scott. Starting on the back nine, Tiger birdied the par-4 10th hole, then reeled off six consecutive pars. He birdied the 205-yard, par-3 17th and parred the 18th hole to make the turn in 2-under 34.
Tiger started strong on the second nine, following up a par on the first hole with back-to-back birdies at the par-3 second and par-4 third. But he absorbed his first bogey of the tournament at the 479-yard, par-4 fourth, where he three-putted, the ball horseshoeing around the hole.
A beautiful approach shot from 196 yards in the left rough led to a short birdie at the 464-yard, par-4 fifth. But Woods gave it back with a bogey at the 200-yard, par-3 sixth.
Tiger rebounded with a 6 1/2 foot birdie putt at the short 327-yard, par-4 seventh, hitting a well-executed sand wedge from just short of the green. At the 602-yard, par-5 eighth, Woods pulled his driver into the left rough between two fairway bunkers, then hit a 3-iron short of the green in a front-left bunker. He splashed the long sand shot to close range but didn’t touch the hole as a gust of wind kicked up just as he putted.
Frustrated by the lost opportunity, Woods split the fairway with a fairway wood at the 401-yard, par-4 ninth, then knocked his second shot from 128 yards, 22 feet left of the pin. Tiger poured in the birdie putt, raising his putter skyward with his left hand, to conclude his day on a positive note.
This is the first time Conway Farms has hosted the PGA TOUR, and many players hadn’t seen the course before arriving this week. Woods credited caddie Joe LaCava for scouting the layout earlier in the week and giving him a sense of how it plays.
“Joey did a great job getting the numbers and a feel for the golf course,” Tiger said. “We had a good game plan.”
The winner of the BMW Championship receives 2,500 FedExCup points. The top 30 players on the points list at the end of the week advance to East Lake Golf Course in Atlanta next week for the TOUR Championship, where the overall winner earns a $10 million bonus. Tiger is a two-time FedExCup champion.
On Friday, Woods begins second-round play at 11:59 a.m. local time (12:59 p.m. ET) on the first tee with Stenson and Scott. The forecast calls for cooler temperatures and 20 mile-per-hour winds.
