Live from the U.S. Open, Tiger Woods can’t quite hit his high notes
The winds blew the ball all over Shinnecock Hills Golf Club for the 2018 U.S. Open. Tiger Woods could have been in the mix if not for a couple costly mistakes.
By the time Tiger Woods stood on the first tee at the 118th U.S. Open, gusting wind and Shinnecock Hills’ devilish greens all but exterminated the verve among the capacity crowd.
But at 1:47 p.m., Woods turned Southampton into a rock concert, with galleries eight and 10 deep, phones (illegally) out capturing all the action in Woods’ return to U.S. Open competition, the most recent major championship of his 14.
If this was a concert, with Shinny his MSG, Tiger opened with “some new stuff we’re really excited about,” making a triple-bogey 7 despite driving it in the fairway. A followup bogey at the impossibly long par-3 second left Woods +4 after just two holes. But Woods quickly found the notes, banging his much-maligned driver past Dustin Johnson at times, giving him short irons and wedges into greens to go with some impressive short-game saves.
He finished the last seven holes of the outward nine in 1-under, still five shots back of the leaders when he made the turn. Tiger had the crowd rowdy, playing the hits.
“All I had to do was just probably shoot, after that bad start, shoot even par for the next 16 holes and be just fine,” Woods said after his round in a somber, barely audible post-round interview. “The guys weren’t going anywhere today.”
Dustin Johnson, playing with Tiger, stood among those leaders as his consistent driving put DJ in position to attack pins and a chip-in at the 8th hole from the bunker. On a day when major champions like Phil Mickelson (+7), Jordan Spieth (+8), Rory McIlroy (+10), and Jason Day (+9) struggled, Johnson played at his normal machine-like cadence and rhythm. In all, 156 of the best players in the world combined for 189 doubles or worse.
“We thought there were probably seven to nine birdie-able holes out there,” Tiger said. “Now with the wind out there, that changed dramatically and also where they put some of these pins; you just can’t get to them.”
Diabolical pin placements, stiff winds, and danger just about everywhere never bothered Johnson, a player who never seems to be perturbed by much. He goes into Day 2 tied for the lead after a first-round 69, trying to become the first-ever winner of the U.S. Open after winning the tournament the week before.
A sloppy bogey at 11 pushed Woods seven back of Johnson who birdied the 11th, a critical swing befitting the obvious metaphor in this group: for Tiger to get back to contending in majors he was going to have to go through his two playing partners, guys who happen to be 1-2 in the World Golf Rankings with each holding the top spot this season.
Tiger, of course, holds the record for consecutive weeks in that familiar No. 1 spot, but none of that matters at one of the premiere championship venues in golf. On a day when Shinnecock Hills showed its teeth with just four players under par, Woods could have been on the first page of the leaderboard if not for his horrendous start.
Or at least so it seemed. A four-putt on the 13th for double pushed Woods to 6-over and suddenly it started to look like when Bob Dylan makes a classic unrecognizable. Two trips to the tall grass on 14 ended in another double-bogey and the wheels weren’t just off, but barreling down the fairway.
Without enough birdie holes to get back in the mix—Shinnecock Hills doesn’t have more than a handful—Woods scuttled to the clubhouse with a 8-over 78, nine shots off of the lead.
“It’s frustrating because I’m hitting it well. In the last four tournaments I have not putted well. And so if I can putt like I did at the beginning of the year, we really have something. I just haven’t done that.”
Day 1 at the U.S. Open for Woods embodied his comeback with stretches of consistency, occasional brilliance, and too many mistakes to truly be in the mix. Take away two holes, and Tiger could have been right there, but that’s not how sports work. For as well as he struck the ball, Woods couldn’t have scored any worse. Sloppy short game around the green at 1 and some ugly putting on 13 were the difference, evidence he’s not quite back to his old self.
We know Woods will likely never get back there, but the question becomes how much do we have to recalibrate? Just 1.25 majors into this season, we don’t yet know the answer. He’s still good enough to contend week-to-week as he’s proven. The next step is winning a tournament. Then we can talk about majors.
But remember, Woods still outplayed some of the best players in the world, guys with wins already this season. He even admitted after his round he was thinking about some of the epic U.S. Open comebacks while struggling through his round. Woods still thinks he can go low in majors, shoot in the 60’s and make runs. He’s not that far away from that level, but he showed Thursday the next step isn’t yet within reach. And that’s OK.
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It seems impossible a player who always played with the bravado and intimidating swagger of Woods lacks confidence, but he had some ugly short-game shots Thursday afternoon. He perhaps wasn’t sure enough in what he was doing, confident enough in his game to pull them off. That was always a Woods signature: He could do the impossible, pulling off shots most players couldn’t even imagine and make it seem routine.
Perhaps that Woods no longer exists. It may also be true Tiger doesn’t need that guy to win again. After all, he was much better than the field when that Woods stepped on the course. But some of his miscues Thursday didn’t require magic, just execution. He still managed to hit some beautiful pitches and chips to save par and escape damage. If some putts start falling, who knows what that does for his momentum?
Given how tough the course played on Day 1 when conditions were supposed to be friendly, Day 2 could be an absolute bloodbath, meaning Woods didn’t necessarily play his way out of the tournament entirely.
It’s a quick turnaround for Woods, heading out early Friday morning sitting at T104 and nine off the lead, but three off the top-60 cut line as it stands after one round. That distinction personifies where we are in the comeback. Woods isn’t fighting to get into contention, but rather scratching and clawing for his tournament life.
That leaves us with a question we’ve asked of Woods many times over the last two decades: what will he do for an encore?