The nerve of that brazen Englishman.
How dare he?
Sorry, not allowed, not supposed to happen, no, this is Tiger Woods week, the week he is supposed to win.
No, don’t you dare go out there and show him up, Ian!
Sorry all you Tiger cheerleaders at The Golf Channel. Sorry about that.
Poulter actually had the cojones to go out and shoot a near-course-record tying 62 on Thursday.
This is Firestone Country Club. It’s Tiger’s playground.
During the first round of this final WGC event of the season, Poulter went really low, but so did a lot of other players in this elite-field event.
After Poulter’s eight-under pummeling of the soft, inviting course, you found Kyle Stanley in at 63.
Jon Rahm, Patrick Cantlay and Si Woo Kim shot 64s.
Yeah, everyone’s going low.
Sixty-fives? A bunch. Rory McIlroy was the biggest name there along with Jason Day and Justin Thomas. Don’t tell Tiger that Kevin Na clipped him too.
Woods got out early and shot 66. There’s even a guy who follows his every footstep — some guy the Golf Channel dubs The Tiger Tracker. This clown tweets every shot and was going nuts all day, talking about Tiger getting 19 majors and bunk like that. The Tiger Tracker isn’t the least bit biased. Maybe this top-secret Golf Channel character is actually Stiney’s brother-in-law.
After blathering that Woods is indeed the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time), the Tiger Tracker and everyone else had to face the reality that Woods finished what looked like a decent day with a sloppy bogey at his final hole, the ninth.
Before that, Woods made a 50-foot bomb at 18, one from 18 feet at the fifth and a 25-footer for birdie at seven.
A crappy tee shot at nine drew a distinct expletive from Woods. He was forced to hit a layup from a fairway bunker and his third left him 10-feet to save that last par. Missed it. Missed a short one to start the day from four feet at 10.
Wood lamented afterward:
“The ball striking didn’t really have it,” he was quick to say. “I either hit a pull or a cut. I couldn’t get a feel for it.”
“I felt today a good score would be a 67 or so, but it’s soft and the ball is flying forever,” Woods explained.
He beat his target by a shot.
Woods had plenty of big-name company with him at four-under, which suggests this victory for Woods won’t come as easy as some believe.
Brooks Koepka is there with him, so is Patrick Reed. So there’s two major champions for him to tackle. Oh yeah, the old guy tied him too, his buddy Philly-Mick. There was tons of talk Thursday about their $10 million match becoming reality. Wood said he’s signed nothing yet.
But first things first.
Woods has extreme competition lining up in front him and some good names behind him.
No one was talking about Dustin Johnson opening with 69. Apparently his “A” game hasn’t cleared customs back at the Canadian border.
Yeah, this talent pool at this latest WGC-Firestone is a lot deeper than it was the last time Woods won here, and that was five years ago.
There are a lot of world-beaters to handle.
As Woods walked off the final hole with playing partner Jason Day, Day took a jab at the 14-time major champion.
“What did you say?” asked Woods, who missed Day’s jab.
Day, told him quickly, “I said that you are old.”
