Tiger Woods Shoots 68 At Quicken Loans National


Tiger Woods fired a stellar three-under-par 68 on Thursday’s first round at the 2015 Quicken Loans National, a promising sign in the midst of a very disappointing season. Woods currently sits five strokes back of leaders Retief Goosen and Ryo Ishikawa, in a tie for 27th.

Tiger stumbled early on his first few holes, bogeying three of his first four holes, and it seemed as though his day could only get worse. Instead of letting his round unravel, Woods found his swing and his rhythm and bounced back with birdies at the par-five fifth and eighth holes. There were flashes of brilliance when Woods started his back nine with four consecutive birdies, rallying back from another horrible start. He flushed his irons close to within eight feet on holes 10, 11, and 12, and then poured in a 12-foot birdie putt on the 13th to cap off his birdie streak.

According to stats provided by the PGA Tour’s website, Tiger hit eight out of 14 fairways and 14 out of 18 greens in regulation en route to his first round 68.

After the round, Woods commented on his game and said how overall he was happy with the way he was swinging and putting, and giving himself plenty of opportunities to score.

“That’s what scoring is all about. You’ve got to score, and I made a lot of key putts today. I ran them by the hole, but I made all the comebacks, and overall I felt like I hit the ball well enough to turn it around. It was nice to actually turn it around.”

Tiger’s promising performance comes just a few weeks after he missed the cut by seven shots at the British Open after firing rounds of 76 and 75. Prior to that, Woods also missed the cut at the U.S. Open, where he shot a horrendous first-round 80.

So far, with three missed cuts and three rounds in the 80s this season, Tiger Woods looks nothing like the former world No. 1 player who once dominated the game. His season has been mired in disappointment and struggles with his swing changes, but perhaps Thursday’s first round was a sign of better times ahead.

It is evident that he certainly has the game to play well — he made four birdies in a row — but the question is if he is consistent enough to put up these kinds of performances each week he tees it up. And so far, the answer has been no. Woods has been wildly unpredictable, and if he can’t begin to trust his swing and execute his shots, then perhaps this is the new Tiger we’ll have to get used to in the coming years.

Woods, who needs to win this week’s event to qualify for next week’s WGC Bridgestone Invitational, will tee off Friday morning at 8:10 a.m. Eastern time, looking to build momentum in his second round.

[Photo by Patrick Smith / Getty Images]

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