The Open 2018: Tiger Woods highlights from Round 1

A look at Tiger Woods’ second nine of the opening round at The Open Championship at Carnoustie.

10th hole

With the wind picking up at Carnoustie, Tiger got himself in big trouble off the tee at the 465-yard, par-4 10th, his ball finding a nasty bunker off the fairway, forcing himself to play out sideways for his second, making par very difficult. Still with 186 yards left for his third, Tiger gave himself a chance at a four with a good iron in to the right of the flag about 20 feet away. He immediately knew he missed his putt to the left and gave back his first shot of the day with a bogey.

Thru 10: -1

11th hole

Tiger was back in the fairway and in good shape at the short, par-4 11th after going with iron again and was left with 158 yards to the hole with the wind directly in his face. Distance was once again good but he wanted no part of going at the hole on the right-hand side of the green with that little bunker guarding it and left himself 35 feet for birdie and drilled it home to get his shot back from the 10th. Beautiful putt.

Thru 11: -2

12th hole

With bunkers 285 and 301 yards down the fairway, Tiger put himself well back of the green on the longest par-4 at Carnoustie, playing at 503 yards, the first par-4 in the history of The Open over 500, but once again found the short grass off the tee. With 228 yards left, his approach hit just in front of the green, finding one of the many hard spots on this golf course and bouncing on and then over the putting surface. Once again showing great touch, this time with a little chip, Woods was left with just a tap-in to save his par and remain three shots back of the lead.

Thru 12: -2

13th hole

With the wind directly behind him at the par-3 13th, playing 175 yards on this opening Thursday, TIger went with pitching wedge and hit a good shot into the green that unfortunately checked up a little bit more than he would have liked, leaving a big left-to-right putt that he never hit hard enough. He had a little work to do to save par and lipped out for his first three-putt and second bogey of the day. Certainly gave one away there.

Thru 13: -1

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14th hole

The shorter of the two par-5s at Carnoustie at just 513 yards, Tiger elected to still go with iron off the tee, the first player all day to do so. But it worked out just fine as the ball rolled and rolled, leaving himself just 213 yards to the hole. However, he couldn’t take advantage as he got a little more aggressive on this approach, taking a dangerous line at the flag and ended up plugged in the greenside bunker. He just cleared the lip in front him, taking a very hard swing, and wound up just over the green but still with a birdie putt, which he left well short. But he fought back and made a great putt to save par to stay in red numbers.

Thru 14: -1

15th hole

With the hole playing right to left and the fairway sloping from left to right, this is one of the more difficult tee shots on the course and Tiger’s iron looked good off the tee but again, the ball kept rolling and rolling and he found a bunker down the right-hand side, leaving a very difficult second shot.

Playing on one knee out of the sand, the only option he was left with was to just get it out and try and get up and down for par. He played his third to 35 feet, missed the par putt short and holed a little tester for bogey to drop back to even for the day, five shots behind Kevin Kisner.

Thru 15: E

16th hole

A monster of a hole, the 252-yard, par-3 16th played as one of the most difficult holes at Carnoustie on Thursday and Tiger couldn’t find the putting surface off the tee. Hitting 6-iron with the wind behind him, Woods’ ball bounced short of the green and kicked to the right into the rough. He nearly holed his second, sliding just by the cup and leaving him another tester to save par. He holed it and remained at even for the day.

Thru 16: E

Next: 10 best moments in the history of The Open

17th hole

With the Barry Burn everywhere on this hole, it’s imperative to keep the ball to the right side and Tiger hit a beautiful stinger to put himself in good position for his approach. From 211 yards, Woods hit a very solid approach to the center of the green and had a decent look at birdie to get back to red numbers. But his putt took a few little hops at the start, once again coming up short and not making it easy on himself to save par. But he was able to hole the four-footer to remain even on the day.

Thru 17: E

18th hole

Tiger came to Carnoustie’s closing hole, aptly named Home, and hit another solid tee shot and was left with 162 yards to the hole. Instead of taking dead aim at the flag, he chose to play another safe shot to the middle of the green and had another long putt, giving himself one final chance to get back under par for The Open. His putt started left, stayed there and he tapped in to shoot an opening-round 71.

Thru 18: E (71)

All in all, it was a solid day for Tiger Woods. He stuck to his game plan of hitting irons off the tee, only missing on a few occasions. Outside of the mishap at the 13th, he putted very well on these slow greens, something he admits he hasn’t been comfortable with in the past. But at the end of his day, he was still just five shots out of the lead in a tie for 33rd.

Tiger tees off on Friday morning at 5:20 a.m. Eastern.

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