They turned out in droves early Thursday morning at hot, sunny Southern Hills — they were 12 deep when Tiger Woods arrived at the 10th tee for his round one date with Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth — it was electric but by day’s end, it was all Rory with Tiger limping painfully toward the scoring room.
Things started with a lot of promise for Woods. He was supposed to be stronger and more prepared than he was last month at Augusta National. Pre-tournament Tiger optimism was high. And there was plenty for the good folks from Tulsa to cheer about early.
Tiger moved cautiously down the stairs from the 10th tee to the fairway after his opening tee shot, using his three-wood like a walking stick. He got a bit annoyed by the walking camera that kept moving closer to him as he headed down the fairway. “Mind giving me some breathing space?” Woods asked. Then he asked two more times before he finally got some.
Tiger gave himself some breathing space with a pair of birdies over his first five holes on that back nine but he was being over-run by Rory.
Rory went on an early roll like he’s never experienced in a major. Starting at the 12th, McIlroy ran off four straight birdies. He obliterated a drive and cut the corner on 12, leaving himself 85 yards and a kick-in birdie. At 13, he unleased a massive 378-yard monster of a drive, was pin-high in the greenside bunker in two on the 628-yard hole and gave himself another gimme from two feet. At 14 he ran in one from 26-feet then followed that up with a nice nine-footer at 15.
After Tiger’s nice start came 13 holes reminding us that his is a long recovery-in-process. Two bogeys took him back to even par at the turn and the final nine was nothing short of a mighty struggle. He bogeyed three of the first four holes then finished bogey-bogey — looking gassed and wincing in pain. A birdie on the third at least kept him in the 30s for that nine but 74 wasn’t what everyone on site who followed him was hoping for. Rory clipped him by nine.
Woods found a lot of trouble in the Southern Hills bunkers. He hit six of them and only got up-and-down once. “The sand is a lot faster than I thought it would be,” Tiger explained. “Kind of been that way all week, especially if you get up in the areas where it’s not raked. I had a couple of those balls where it was in those areas. It’s like, is there a lot of sand here, is there not, how should I play it, and when you dig in with your feet you’re not in those areas where it’s raked. I feel like sometimes the sand — I’m guessing, and I guessed wrong.”
Then add the pain he’s experiencing in his right leg, foot and ankle:
“It hurts when I walk, hurts when I load, hurts when I push off (of right foot),” Woods said bluntly, giving us some insight into what he’s enduring to tee it up in this championship.
At times, it hurt to watch him.
On the other end of the spectrum was McIlroy’s impressive performance.
“It was a great start to the tournament,” McIlroy said afterward turning in the day’s best round — that nifty 65 punctuated by a closing birdie at 18 — toughest hole on the course. “I think when your game is feeling like that it’s just a matter of going out there and really sticking to your game plan, executing as well as you possibly can, and just sort of staying in your own little world.”
That’s a phrase Woods has used often — get in your own world and play. Woods world was pain, Rory’s was pleasure.
“I could have easily shot 68 or 69 today and not led, but if I had played the same quality of golf, I would have been equally positive about it,” explained McIlroy, who not only seized a one-stroke lead over Will Zalatoris after the morning wave, but also showed up his popular playing partners Jordan Spieth, who finished with 72. “I hit some good tee shots, some good iron shots and holed some putts. I did everything I needed to do. It’s a great start, but I’m not going to get ahead of myself. But, yeah, it’s nice to see a decent number up there.”
Rory’s historically had issues in first rounds of majors, but not on Thursday.
“Look, it was a great start to the tournament. I’ve been playing well coming in here. I’ve been carrying some good form,” he quickly added. “Obviously, that took a lot from that last round at Augusta, played well up in D.C. at the Wells Fargo there, and played good in the practice rounds earlier this week.”
By day’s end it was evident that Rory and the morning wave had a big advantage — nearly three hours on the course without any significant wind.
By afternoon, those winds did come up and made things rough for the afternoon guy.
It will be the same story for day two on Friday. Easy in the morning, tough in the afternoon.
Good news and bad news.
Good news — Rory’s off and running.
Bad news — he’s not the best of wind players.
Good news for Tiger — he made it 18 holes.
Bad news for Tiger — he’s got 18 more on Friday.
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