Sport
Decent start for Tiger Woods at British Open
Tiger Woods reacts to his birdie putt on the 18th green to force a playoff with Rocco Mediate during the final round of the 108th U.S. Open at the Torrey Pines Golf Course on June 15, 2008 in San Diego, California. PHOTO/Doug Pensinger/Getty Images
Tiger Woods hit every tee shot exactly where he was looking, needed only eight putts through seven holes and reached 4-under par to quickly get his name atop the leaderboard Thursday in the British Open.
It looked like he was just getting started.
Instead, he stalled.
On as easy a day as Royal Lytham & St. Annes can provide, soft fairways and greens, little evidence of wind — Woods had to settle for a 3-under 67 that left him three shots behind Adam Scott.
Woods looked like he was capable of running away from the field with those four early birdies to take the lead. He narrowly missed a 10-foot birdie putt on the par-3 ninth hole for a 29, which would have been his lowest nine-hole start in any major.
“We knew that we needed at least to get off to a quick start on that front nine, and I figured a couple under would have been good,” Woods said. “But I look up on the board and Scotty is going pretty low, and so is everyone else. I felt I had to make a few more, and I was able to.”
He covered the flag with his tee shot on the par-3 12th hole, leaving himself 12 feet below the hole. But when he walked onto the green, he saw a leaderboard packed with names. His was not at the top, rather somewhere in the middle. Scott already was at 6 under and challenging the major championship record of 63. Bubba Watson, Graeme McDowell and Zach Johnson, all of them major champions, also were at 4 under with plenty of birdie holes ahead of them.
