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Tiger Woods Finishes First Round With Three Straight Birdies at Genesis Invitational, Shoots 69

Woods finished with a flourish at Riviera Country Club in an afternoon where he appeared to move well throughout the round.

Bob Harig

LOS ANGELES — For Tiger Woods, saving the best for last is a tough ask these days. That’s when the pain associated with his right leg is more acute. After hours of standing, walking, crouching and hitting golf shots, what Woods needs the most is some relief.

And so it was both surprising and gratifying for him to finish his first round at the Genesis Invitational on Thursday with three straight birdies, all set up by strong tee shots and without the grimacing that he become accustomed to last year in his three official tournament starts.

The ending was a massive boost for Woods, who saw the round slipping away earlier on the back nine, only to finish with a 2-under-par 69 and in a tie for 27th, five shots back of leaders Max Homa and Keith Mitchell at Riviera Country Club.

Woods was unable to beat playing partners Rory McIlroy (67) nor Justin Thomas (68) but he was the star of the threesome anyway.

"I'm a little bit sore right now," Woods admitted. "We were laughing, joking in the scoring tent here, Rory's going to go down and hit some drivers, I said I'll be right there right behind.

"Yes, I need to go and we can do some treatment and get this thing ready for tomorrow. Again, last year you saw it, I didn't finish off the rounds right. Those are things that I hadn't done and I hadn't played a whole lot, so I was chastising myself pretty hard coming off of (No.) 12 saying, 'hey, we've got to really get this thing going. I don't know how we're going to do it after hitting a bad tee shot on 13, but let's just somehow figure it out and figure out how to piece together something around even par, 1 under par' and just happened to get three in a row coming in."

His late rally behind with an 8-iron to 5 feet at the par-3 16th, one that caddie Joe LaCava said was impressive. "He not only hit good shots, but he hit the shots he wanted to hit," LaCava said.

Then, after a 322-yard drive at the par-5 17th, Woods hit his second shot from 276 over the green. A poor chip left him 23 feet away but he holed his longest putt of the day for a birdie.

At the par-4 18th, a 317-yard drive was followed by a 9-iron from 150 yards to 8 feet. He made the putt to finish off a solid day that puts him in strong position to make the 36-hole cut.

"Ebbs and flows," Woods said. "It was nice that I had this unbelievable pairing, two great guys, two great friends. The people were obviously very supportive, they were just cheering all of us on, which is great. Just made this whole—this tournament better.

“I happened to actually hit some good shots finally and made a couple putts. Even though I had a little mishap at 10, I was able to fight back and get it going. It was a nice finish.’’

Woods, 47, was making his first official start since missing the cut at the British Open in July at St. Andrews. He had to withdraw from the Hero World Challenge in December due to plantar fasciitis, and his appearance here at the event he hosts and that is run by his foundation was a mystery until he committed last Friday.

Still suffering from the injuries he suffered nearby in a one-car crash two years ago, Woods showed more endurance than he had in his three starts last year at the Masters, PGA Championship and Open. Riviera has traditionally given him fits—he’s played it 13 previous times without a victory—but he managed to get through the first nine holes with two birdies and a bogey.

Woods ran into trouble at the short par-4 10th, where he took a driver and seemed to be playing for the green at the 302-yard hole.

But his tee shot traveled just 260 yards and ended up in a bunker, from where he had an awkward uphill lie and could only blast out. From 30 yards, he hit his pitch and saw it run through the green into a back bunker, then blasted to 8 feet and made the putt for bogey.

He then failed to birdie the par-5 11th after a poor pitch and missed the fairway at the 12th, leading to a bogey and dropping to 1 over par.

But he battled back over those closing holes and gave himself a good chance of making the 36-hole cut. The top 65 and ties advance to the weekend.

"When you haven’t played for six or seven months, you’re going to be a little rusty," McIlroy said. "But he didn’t show a lot of rust."

Woods hit only six of 14 fairways but he averaged more than 311 yards on the two measured driving holes and hit 12 of 18 greens. He needed just 27 putts, another good sign.

"It was really solid," LaCava said. "To play so well at the end was great, you know he’s getting tired, you know it’s starting to hurt."

Now comes the difficult part. Woods said he’d be spending some time in an ice bath on Thursday night, one of the things he does to combat swelling. He’ll likely be up in the wee hours of the morning to work on flexibility with his trainer. And lest we forget, he’s got a fused back that doesn’t do so well in cold weather.

That’s where the 7:25 a.m. tee time (local, 10:25 a.m. ET) makes things all the more challenging on Friday. The temperature will be 47 degrees and won’t hit 60 until noon.

That’s why the finish was so important. Woods gave himself a boost and a few extra shots to work with as well.

“Now comes the hard part," LaCava said.

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Bob Harig
BOB HARIG

Bob Harig is a senior writer covering golf for Sports Illustrated. He has more than 25 years experience on the beat, including 15 at ESPN. Harig is a regular guest on Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio and has written two books, "DRIVE: The Lasting Legacy of Tiger Woods" and "Tiger and Phil: Golf's Most Fascinating Rivalry." He graduated from Indiana University where he earned an Evans Scholarship, named in honor of the great amateur golfer Charles (Chick) Evans Jr. Harig, a former president of the Golf Writers Association of America, lives in Clearwater, Fla.

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