Tiger opens Palmer with 3-under-par 69
Admittedly, Tiger Woods wasn’t sharp Thursday in the first round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Fla. His ball-striking was off and he made three bogeys.
However, as he so often does, Tiger dug deep when he had to and still produced a 3-under-par 69. That was four strokes behind leader Justin Rose, who, like Woods, works with instructor Sean Foley.
“I didn’t drive it well, didn’t hit my irons well and didn’t control my distance or my trajectory,” said Woods, a seven-time winner of the event.
What he did do is play the four par-5s in 5-under and make several clutch par saves. Tiger hit 8 of 14 fairways and 12 of 18 greens in regulation, and used 28 putts.
“I certainly didn’t play my best, but I got around and a made a few good saves out there,” he said.
An early back nine starter with Rose and Ernie Els, Woods made a nice up-and-down for par from behind the green at the par-4 10th hole. After a par at No. 11, he birdied the par-5 12th with an 18-foot putt.
Tiger parred the next three holes, then eagled the 511-yard, par-5 16th. After a big drive, he knocked his second shot from 154 yards to 13 feet below the cup, and poured in the left-to-right putt.
Woods ran into trouble at the water-guarded and intimidating 221-yard, par-3 17th, finding the front bunker off the tee. He blasted to 14 feet from the hole and missed the par putt.
He also bogeyed the 458-yard, par-4 18th, where he drove into the right rough, played his second shot 44 yards short of the green, and wound up missing a six-foot putt, to make the turn in 1-under-par 35.
Tiger almost sustained his third bogey in a row at the 461-yard, par-4 first hole. He hit his tee shot into the right rough, gouged his second shot 82 yards from the green, then salvaged par with a 10-foot putt.
Woods made another scrambling par at the 231-yard, par-3 second hole, where he missed the green to the right, hit a sand wedge to six feet and sank the putt.
“Those were key because I had just thrown away a couple of shots I saved on 16,” said Woods.
They also propelled him to three-straight birdies. At the 561-yard, par-5 fourth, Tiger rolled in an 11-foot putt; at the 390-yard, par-4 fifth, he connected from 17 feet; and at the 555-yard, par-5 sixth, he converted from nine feet.
Woods dropped a stroke at the 199-yard, par-3 seventh, finding the right greenside bunker. His second shot finished nine feet from the cup and he missed the putt.
Tiger closed with pars at Nos. 8 and 9, two-putting both from long range, to tour the side in 2-under-par 34.
“I took care of the par-5s, but I didn’t birdie them the way I like to,” Woods said. “I hit some bad shots, but was fortunate to get the ball on the green and make a putt.”
Tiger, a two-time winner this year on the PGA Tour and coming off a victory two weeks ago at the WGC-Cadillac Championship, begins second-round play Friday at 12:45 p.m. ET on the first tee with Els and Rose.
