Tiger Woods lights up Aronimink in BMW Championship opener

Tiger Woods lit up the scoreboard – and the gallery – at Aronimink in the first round of the BMW Championship. And he had a little help from an old friend to get him there.

Tiger Woods has had his share of big moments in his remarkable comeback in 2018. He’s finished inside the top ten five times in 16 starts. He was runner-up twice, including at the PGA Championship just four weeks ago. But he may not have looked more ready to win than he did in lighting up the scoreboard at the BMW Championship on Thursday.

Woods was money from the time he teed off at Aronimink, sinking a 20-footer for birdie on the par-4 10th, his first hole of the day. That wasn’t all he had up his sleeve, though, as he followed it up with another mid-range birdie on No. 12. A stiff approach shot on 13 led to a ten-footer for another birdie.

Woods hadn’t teed it up at Aronimink in over eight years, since finishing tied for 46th at the 2010 AT&T National. Suddenly, just four holes into his return, he was on top of the leaderboard.

The galleries were rocking early, and they never stopped. Tiger made an eagle 3 on the par-5 16th after a magnificent approach left him inside six feet. Another birdie on 18 had him six under at the turn.

Nick Watney set the course record here in 2011 when he shot 62 in the 2011 National. Woods looked set to decimate that mark – he was on 59 watch.

There have been two trademarks to Woods’s comeback season in 2018. The first is his masterful ball-striking. When he’s had an iron or wedge in his hands, there has hardly been anyone better on the entire PGA TOUR.

Through last week’s Dell Technologies Championship, Woods ranked fourth on TOUR in strokes-gained approaching the green. Not bad for a guy who just got cleared to practice chipping and pitching a little over a year ago.

Of course, that kind of marksmanship only helps if you can make a putt. That’s been Tiger’s Achilles heel all season, as he ranks a pedestrian (at best) 50th on TOUR in strokes gained putting. That’s miserable considering how great he’s been on the greens for 20-plus years.

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Woods, to his credit, has been more than willing to try new things to get it in line. He used a TaylorMade mallet-style putter (the Ardmore 3) at the National. Last week, he was seen in Boston testing a TaylorMade TP Black Copper Juno blade.

Woods wanted to shake things up a bit, and he had some early successes. But there’s been one thing that has been with Woods through the highest points of his career, and it was time to bring it back.

The famous Scotty Cameron Newport 2, 1999 edition. The putter that Woods won 13 of his 14 majors (so far) with. The one that even his kids can’t touch.

"“I’ve hit hundreds of millions of putts (with the Cameron), I’ve had it since ’99,” Woods said. “I’ve hit putts with it. My body just remembers it. When I got away from it, and back when I was using the Nike putter, I’d always bring it out and hit putts with it. Sometimes it works but it just feels very familiar to me.”"

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I don’t want to say that the putter is magic, but there’s a different relationship between a player and his flat stick. Driver technology is all about numbers – launch angle, spin rate, dispersion. Manufacturers advertise irons as being “hotter” (whatever that means) and “more forgiving”.

Putters, though, aren’t sexy in advertising. You can’t sell “touch” and “feel” in a commercial. Likewise, TOUR players, especially obsessive minds like Woods, will find something that works, and stick with it forever. Until it doesn’t, that is.

Based on Tiger’s start on Thursday, it’s clear that he’s got all the confidence in the world with the Scotty in his hands once again. And that could lead to some huge things in the very near future.

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