The first round of the Quicken Loans National started out for Tiger Woods the way things have started out far too often in 2015.
Woods stumbled badly out of the starting blocks, he bogeyed three of his first four holes.
He steadied himself a bit with birdies at the two reachable par fives and turned in one-over par 37 at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, well off the pace but better than he was at the start.
Then something strange happened. There was a little bit of that old Tiger magic over the next four holes after the turn. Woods produced birdies at 10, 11, 12 and 13, his best run of the season, the first four-birdie stretch of the season. Birdies used to come in bushels for Woods, lately they’ve been few and far between.
But late in the afternoon on Thursday, after the field saw a 97 minute thunder and lightning delay around Lake Manassas, Woods found a groove, even if it only lasted an hour. He finished with five pars but still shot a 31, his best nine-hole effort of the season.
His three-under par 68 was well off the pace set by Ryo Ishikawa and Retief Goosen, who put up eight-under par 63s.
Ernie Els had his best round of the year, a 64 along with Justin Leonard and Kevin Chappell.
Woods’ round left him in a group with 15 other players, tied for 27th.
Everyone on the course was helped by the lift-clean-and-place rules in effect.
Still, it was a glimmer of hope for Woods, albeit on a scoring-friendly layout.
It was certainly better than the rest of this season.
