Sport
Tiger Woods bounces back from shaky start at British Open
Tiger Woods watches his shot off the 2nd tee during the first day of the British Open Golf championship, Thursday July 17, 2014. PHOTO/Peter Morrison/AP
Tiger Woods is back at the majors.
Seems like he was never away.
After a shaky start to the British Open, Woods ripped through Royal Liverpool on Thursday much like he did 8 years ago, when he won the claret jug for the third time. A 30-foot birdie from the fringe of the 11th green got him going. Four more birdies in the next five holes carried Woods to a 3-under 69, leaving him just three shots behind Rory McIlroy.
Not bad for a guy playing his first major of the year, who went months without being able to swing a club after back surgery.
“I am only going to get better,” Woods said. “I am getting stronger, I am getting faster, I am getting more explosive. The ball is starting to travel again. And those are all positive things.”
Woods, who has been stuck on 14 major titles for more than 6 years, is just happy to be playing after March 31 surgery kept him out of the Masters and the U.S. Open.
He bogeyed the first two holes on a mild, sunny day with only a hint of a breeze rippling the flags. Down the stretch, he looked more like the player who went 18 under the last time golf’s oldest major was held at this course along the Irish Sea.
“I felt good about a lot of things I did out there,” said Woods, who played the back nine in 4-under 33. “Especially coming back after that start I had today, to fight myself back into the championship. I feel pretty good about it.”
The conditions were a far cry from 2006, when he won on dry, fiery course that made the grass more brown than green. This time, Royal Liverpool was lush and relatively soft after intermittent rain on Wednesday.
Woods returned to action 3 weeks ago at Congressional, but missed the cut. It looked as though he might be headed to a similar fate when his second shot of the day settled in one of the treacherous pot bunkers, leading to bogey. At No. 2, he knocked a long putt about 6 feet past the hole, then missed the comebacker to take his score to 2 over.
He took advantage of the only par-5 on the front side for his first birdie. But it was that long birdie at the 11th that seemed to spark his round, the first of three straight birdies. After another bogey at the 14th, set up by an errant tee shot into the hay, Woods made two more birdies.
Woods was No. 1 when he took three months off to heal his back. Now he’s seventh.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press