Tiger Woods toils to 6-over 78 in British Open grind

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland –

“Smile” got here the plea from a wee lad within the three-rows-deep gallery as Tiger Woods, stony-faced and along with his head bowed, slowly approached the fourth tee at St. Andrews.

An hour into his first spherical and the one main Woods simply could not miss – a British Open on the dwelling of golf – was starting with an actual grind.

A tricky-to-watch begin had seen him chunk his second shot into the Swilcan Burn, earlier than he missed a brief putt to run up a double-bogey. Then got here a three-putt for bogey on the third gap.

By the point he had dropped two extra photographs at No. 7 after driving right into a bunker on the adjoining gap, Woods was 6-over par and searching as forlorn because the spectator following the 15-time main winner whereas wearing a tiger onesie.

He completed on that quantity, a 6-over 78 matching his second-highest rating at golf’s oldest main and giving him a distant likelihood of creating the weekend in what may be his remaining Open at St. Andrews. Solely seven gamers within the 156-man discipline shot worse Thursday.

“Seems like I will should shoot 66 tomorrow to have an opportunity,” Woods stated. “So clearly it has been carried out. Guys did it at this time. And my accountability tomorrow is to go forward and do it.”

Maybe it was an excessive amount of to count on Woods to contend this week, regardless of being one of many best gamers to choose up a golf membership.

In any case, he’s enjoying on a proper leg pieced collectively from a February 2021 automotive crash. It is just his third occasion of 2022 – all of them have been main championships – and first in almost two months.

The 46-year-old Woods stated this week he has no thought how lengthy he’ll be capable to compete bodily on the highest stage due to his battered physique. So it meant he could not cross up the chance to play St. Andrews, maybe for one final time on the stage the place he gained two of his three British Open titles.

“This was all the time on the calendar, to hopefully be properly sufficient to play it. And I’m,” Woods stated. “I simply did not do an excellent job of it.”

There was sentimentality behind the loud cheers he obtained when strolling onto the follow placing inexperienced beside the primary tee, the place he did some mild stretches for his proper leg, after which the primary tee itself.

Absolutely no different participant ranked No. 996 has had such a reception.

And shouts of “Go on Tiger” adopted him as he walked down the primary gap, the place he reached a tee shot that had settled in the course of the green however in a recent divot. Woods appeared away after hitting his strategy shot as mud flew up off his membership face. When he turned again round, he noticed his ball bounce into the stream guarding the inexperienced.

“Both simply do not hit it flat (or) do not blade it,” Woods stated. “I did not do both. However I nonetheless hit it within the burn.”

He took a penalty, pitched over the water and badly missed a putt of about 4 ft. It was an indication of issues to return.

“I nonetheless struggled with hitting the putts onerous sufficient,” he stated. “Simply because they appear sooner, and particularly when you think about really the fairways are sooner than the greens, it is only a completely different dynamic than we have been accustomed to.”

Although there was no apparent signal of a limp, Woods walked gingerly alongside St. Andrews’ uneven terrain all through a painfully sluggish spherical that took greater than six hours to finish and was performed in nothing greater than a lightweight breeze. His lengthy, typically silent waits at tees gave him time to ponder a slew of erratic photographs on the entrance 9, which no less than ended with a birdie after getting up-and-down from behind the inexperienced.

Woods displayed extra feelings coming again, his aggressive juices maybe beginning to stream. His frustration was evident after failing to gap a brief putt for birdie at No. 12, and there was a wry smile after lacking his par putt on the following.

A drive of greater than 400 yards on the par-5 No. 14, which he two-putted for a 3rd and remaining birdie, prompted whoops and hollers from the gallery, and there have been extra on the 18th when his drive rolled onto the entrance of the inexperienced, just for the ball to drop again into the Valley of Sin.

It summed up his spherical that he might solely make par from there. As he eliminated his cap and saluted the spectators round probably the most storied greens on golf, Woods could not cover his disappointment.

“I had my possibilities to show it round and get it rolling the correct manner,” he stated, “and I did not do it.”