Catching a nasty break off the first tee, the 15-time major winner’s ball found a midway gap on No. 1 and then dropped his approach into the burn in front of the green — just as he did in his first round Open 2015 in St. Andrews. Unable to get up and down after a pinfall, Woods nailed a double bogey. It didn’t get much better from there. “In a round, sometimes it just goes like that and it never seems to come back no matter how hard you fight,” Woods said. “And then I create problems with my bad speed on the greens. I hit the ball in the right places, sometimes I left myself some good fakes in the right angles and I messed it up.” Back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 3 and 4 put Woods at 4 over through his first four holes, and after making two straight pars, it felt like the 46-year-old was finally settling into his own. However, shocked at the system, Woods once again made a fatal mistake when his tee shot at the short par-4 seventh found the fairway bunker at the short par-4 12th, leading to another double bogey. As if the mountain to start the week wasn’t high enough, Woods’ play through the first seven holes made it that much steeper to climb. Despite a poor start, he showed determination with back-to-back birdies around the turn. After reaching the green in regulation on the tricky par-3 11th, a two-putt par would see Woods head to the 4-over 12th with a chance to salvage his round. Instead, a sloppy three-putt effort derailed any thoughts of a comeback, and his round took a turn for the worse when his short birdie attempt at the 12th missed badly. From there, Woods’ final six holes contained a little bit of everything as he nailed two bogeys, three pars and a birdie for a final score of 6 over. “The overall rating [is the most disappointing],” Woods said. “I feel like I didn’t do too badly. Yes, I had a bad spin on the greens, yes. But I didn’t feel like I hit it that bad. I ended up in bad spots or just some weird things happened. “It’s just the way it goes. Links golf is like that and this golf course is like that. I had my chances to turn it and roll it the right way, and I didn’t.” Tiger will need to dig deep to achieve his goal of playing the weekend as he did in both the Masters and the PGA Championship. With the predicted cut line even, he should take advantage of the calmer morning conditions to secure two extra drives around the Old Course at St. Andrews. “That was always on the calendar to hopefully be well enough to play. I am. I just didn’t do a very good job of it [Thursday],” Woods said. Rick Gehman is joined by Kyle Porter and Patrick McDonald to recap Thursday’s action at the Open Championship. Download and follow The Early Edge on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
