ORLANDO – This was supposed to be where Tiger Woods was going to turn up after a two-week hiatus, flex his muscles and get back to his dominance en route to a fifth consecutive PGA Tour victory and seventh win in a row worldwide.
But an unlikely handful of players crashed the party yesterday in the opening round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill for Woods – as much as his own game did, anyway.
Woods, extricating himself time after time following some errant shots during his spotty first round, emerged somewhat unscathed and still in contention at even par, thanks to his world-class scrambling ability.
His 70 should have been more like a 73 or 74 the way he was striking the ball with his irons, but this is what Woods does as well as anyone in the world on the golf course: Grind.
Meanwhile, several groups behind Woods was Fred Couples, he of the balky 48-year-old back and who hasn’t won since 2003. Couples, the recently named US Presidents Cup captain, shot a tidy 5-under-par 65 and shares the lead with Fairfield native JJ Henry entering today’s second round.
Right behind Couples and Henry, who before yesterday never had broken par on this course in eight rounds, is 49-year-old Tom Lehman, the 2006 US Ryder Cup captain.
Lehman, along with defending champion Vijay Singh and Englishman Lee Westwood, shot a 4-under-par 66 and spoke for both he and Couples when he said, “The ability to play good golf is always there no matter how old you are. It just seems that it gets more difficult to do it consistently.”
Just ask Woods, who’s only 32.
Despite entering this week on one of the hottest streaks of his career with talk of a possible Grand Slam this year buzzing, Woods didn’t look sharp yesterday – particularly with his irons.
He missed the 15th green with a pitching wedge that led to a sloppy bogey from the middle of the fairway and he missed the fifth green with a sand wedge, though he saved par there.
“I just did not hit my irons very good,” Woods said. “I missed some greens that I don’t normally miss, made mistakes I don’t normally make.”
Indeed, irritation seeped into Woods’ psyche with frustration showing as the round wore on. After hitting his tee shot nearly into a creek along the right side of the fourth fairway, he slapped the tee marker with his driver and knocked it over. Later, after a poor chip onto the green, he whipped his wedge against his bag.
On No. 9, his last hole of the round, Woods was stopped in mid-swing by the shuddering of a camera and he whirled around and snapped at the photographer. After trying to gather himself for a moment, he sent his drive into the right trees anyway.
Much the way he did all day, though, Woods scrambled for par to keep his round at even par. That, of course, didn’t keep him from heading straight to the practice range to work out the kinks.
“I’m not that far out of it,” he said. “I just need to hit the ball better than I did [yesterday].”