Things haven’t looked great for Tiger Woods on the course over the past two months, though he hasn’t seemed far off either. On Thursday at the Northern Trust, he finally put it all together for a strong round of 68 that has him comfortably in contention.
Woods teed off on the 10th hole at 8:37 a.m. ET on Thursday, needing to safely make his way through the difficult back nine at TPC Boston without any major blemishes before hitting the gas at the turn. And he did just that.
Tiger opened with three-straight pars. Then, at the par-4 13th, he hit his tee shot well right, requiring a punch out. He knocked his third on and two-putted to surrender a single shot. Things got better from there.
At the 522-yard par-5 18th hole, he hit a great tee shot into the middle of the fairway, then stuck his approach from 228 to set up 23-foot eagle try. His eagle putt didn’t fall, but he cleaned up a three-footer for birdie to finish the back nine at even par.
When he turned to the front nine, the birdie train started rolling for the 15-time major champion. He sank a 16-footer for 2 at the long par-3 3rd, and followed that up by driving the green at the short par-4 4th, where he two-putted from 65 feet for another birdie. That moved him to two under and within striking distance of the early lead.
He was unable to reach the par-5 7th in two, but a nifty chip set up a short birdie, his fourth of the day. He tucked his tee shot at the 8th to 6 feet and rolled that one in for his fifth birdie of the day.
At this point, it seemed like Tiger was truly getting into a groove, but the momentum came to a halt on his last hole. He again lost his tee shot to the right at 9. He failed to reach the green in regulation from the rough, and eventually made 5 for his second bogey of Round 1.
Despite the disappointing finish, Woods signed for a three-under 68, leaving him four shots behind early leader Harris English, and in great position to make a run over the next three rounds.
