The eyes of the world were focused squarely on Tiger Woods and that made it easy for long-hitting J.B. Holmes to quietly dismantle the par fives and shoot a quiet 64 Thursday at the Hero World Challenge.
Holmes took advantage of the fives, that were there for the taking and he took them down with three birdies and an eagle at the 11th to set up his eight-under par effort. The only blemish came at the opening hole where he started his round with a bogey.
“It was a great day for me,” Holmes said after he clipped host Tiger Woods by nine shots. “Pretty much all around solid day.”
Holmes held a one-shot lead over the red-hot Hideki Matsuyama, who has had an amazing fall season. Dustin Johnson, PGA Tour Player Of The Year, opened with 66 to hold down solo third.
Henrik Stenson, Matt Kuchar and Louis Oosthuizen were all in with 67 while Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler overcame some early bogey problems to finish with 68s.
Woods got everyone’s attention when he was four-under through his first eight holes but things starting going south for the tournament host. He bogeyed the nine and 11th holes, both par fives and saw his round fall completely apart with double-bogeys on two of the final three holes.
In all, 11 players shot under par, five were in at even par and only two were over par — Woods (73) and Justin Rose (74).
