Tiger Woods fires a 62 to open the BMW Championship: Full highlights

Tiger Woods is off to a blistering start at the BMW Championship, the third leg of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Heads up, everyone. Tiger Woods is in contention at the BMW Championship.

Needing a solid finish this week to secure a spot in the Tour Championship in two weeks, not only did Tiger put himself in a great position to stay in the top 30 — he came into this week’s third leg of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs in 25th position — but he’s also perhaps put himself in position to win for the first time in more than five years. Woods caught fire early and often at Aronimink Golf Club, going out in 29 and coming home in 33 to finish with an 8-under round of 62.

Here’s a look at the highlights from Tiger Woods’ first round at the BMW Championship.

Starting on the 10th hole in a monster group with Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler, Tiger Woods got hot early. Following a 308-yard drive down the left side at the 444-yard par-4, he hit a solid approach to just under 20 feet and drained the birdie putt to get to 1-under for the day. Great start.

Following a ho-hum par at the 11th, Tiger found the fairway at the 466-yard, par-4 12th with a 307-yard drive and was left with 153 yards to the pin. Woods hit his approach to just over 13 feet from the hole and drilled the putt for his second birdie in three holes to tie for the early lead.

Tiger once again found the fairway at the short, par-4 13th, playing just 385 yards on Thursday, and hit a fantastic wedge to under 10 feet on his approach to set up yet another birdie. Three-under through four holes.

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Tiger made pars at 14 and 15 but took advantage of the only par-5 on the back side at the 16th, striping another 300-plus-yard drive down the fairway. Left with 242 yards to the hole, Woods hit a beautiful second shot to just over five feet and dropped the eagle putt to get to 5-under to take the solo lead.

Following a par at the 17th, Tiger needed a birdie on the 18th to shoot his first sub-30 round since the second round of the 2007 Tour Championship and did just that. He hit a 333-yard drive down the fairway and hit knocked his 135-yard approach to just over four feet and rolled in the putt. Twenty-nine for Tiger Woods on his first nine. How fun was that?

Heading to the front side to start his second nine, Tiger kept the momentum rolling at the 434-yard, par-4 first hole. He once again found the fairway with a 314-yard drive and hit another solid wedge to just over 13 feet for his second. Another putt and another birdie. Seven-under through 10.

It was right around this time that the 59 talk began, which naturally meant that Tiger was going to cool off, which he did. He certainly wasn’t playing badly as he kept finding fairways and hitting greens but he just couldn’t get the putts to drop, missing a few by just an inch or two either way. He nearly chipped in for birdie after missing the green at the par-3 fifth hole but settled for par, which he did from holes two through six.

But Woods got back on the birdie train at the 396-yard, par-4 seventh, hitting his 110-yard approach to under a foot for a tap-in. Eight-under and three clear of the field.

Tiger made his first big mistake of the day at the long, par-3 eighth hole, the longest par-3 at Aronimink at 246 yards, with a big pull left. The 15-minute wait on the tee box certainly didn’t help matters. After taking a drop to avoid the grandstands, Woods hit about as good of a second shot as he could from where he was and left himself just under 16 feet for his par. But he just slid by the hole and dropped his first shot of the day.

However, Tiger was able to get that shot back at the par-5 ninth. After missing the fairway, Woods blasted a 5-wood out of the thick stuff and nearly made it onto the green. He chose to putt from a very difficult position, needing to go and up over a ridge to get close. He missed on the low side but holed the birdie putt to shoot 62, tied for the second-lowest round of his illustrious career. He walked off the course tied for the lead.

There’s certainly a number of great players who will be right there with Tiger Woods as the week goes along. Rickie Fowler had a nice round of his own right alongside Tiger and Rory McIlroy (who’s currently on 59 watch) and Billy Horschel, both past FedEx Cup champions, caught fire at Aronimink as well. There’s obviously three rounds to go so anything can happen. But watching Tiger play a round like this was certainly great to watch and just great for the game as a whole. Can he keep it together for four days? We’ll just have to wait and see. Woods tees off at the first hole on Friday at 12:25 p.m ET.