Tiger Woods is back in a familiar position. The top of the leaderboard during a golf tournament.
After starting slowly at the Zozo Championship, Tiger Woods caught fire. He is currently tied for the lead at the end of the first round with Gary Woodland, after shooting a -6 64 to start the event.
For anyone who was up and watching Tiger Woods last night, familiar worries took hold as his round started. For the last few years, whenever Tiger has made a long trip to play golf, there have been worries about how his back and knees, and his body in general, are able to hold up from the long flight.
The opening round of the Zozo Championship looked like it was going to be more of the same. Starting on the 10th hole, Tiger Woods would bogey three straight to start. A par on the par-three 13th hole meant that he was +3 through four holes. It looked like it was going to be a rough day for Tiger.
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Boy, were we wrong.
He quickly made up for those three bogeys by ripping off three straight birdies. Tiger used to annihilate par-fives and took advantage of the par-five 14th hole with a birdie. He would then birdie a par-four and a par-three, and after a par on the 17th hole, would birdie the par-five 18th. After the terrible start, he had finished the back nine under par, and it looked like he had turned his day into something decent.
Once again, still wrong.
He would start the front nine with two pars. Stepping up to the par-three 3rd hole, Tiger would once again start a string of three straight birdies. This time, he took advantage of the par three’s. The third, fifth, and seventh holes were all par-threes, and he would birdie them all. You would think shooting a 29 on the front nine would mean Tiger Woods took advantage of the lone par-five when in reality he shot par on that hole.
He would finish out his day with a birdie on the par-four 9th hole, which was his 9th birdie of the day. Tiger was on point all day with his irons, as evidenced by birdieing four of the five par-threes. He also managed birdies on two of the three par-fives.
The fact that he scored so well on day one is great for another reason as well. It sounds like some nasty weather is rolling in, and it has pushed the tee times up an hour. Typhoon Bualoi is expected to create some strong winds, and you can expect to see gusts north of 30 MPH, along with up to five inches of rain.
Those who scored well during their opening round will be even harder to catch if that is the case, and Tiger is one of the hardest men in the world to catch at the top of the leaderboard already.
His tee-time has been moved from 8:40 PM Eastern to 7:40 PM Eastern, and he will be teeing off with Satoshi Kodaira (-1) and Tommy Fleetwood (+1). If Thursday Night Football doesn’t interest you tonight (well, even if it does), you can make sure to tune in to the Zozo Championship to see if Tiger Woods can keep it up and add another win to the resume that makes even other pros laugh in astonishment when they here it.
Over 100 professional wins would make anyone chuckle in disbelief. Even all the way back in 2002.