Friday 16 February 2018 06:53, UK
Tiger Woods made an erratic start in his first appearance at the Genesis Open for 12 years as he carded a one-over 72 at Riviera Country Club.
The marquee group of Woods, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas attracted huge galleries, and many of the fans outside the ropes got to see Woods up close several times as he missed a number of fairways, particularly over the first half of his round.
Woods' colourful card contained five birdies, four bogeys and one double-bogey seven at the 11th - his second - where his wayward drive resulted in his becoming lodged in the limbs of a tree, forcing him back to the tee box.
The 42-year-old got off to an encouraging start as he pitched to 10 feet at the 10th and converted the chance for birdie, but he needed two balls to complete the next hole and compounded the error with a bogey at the 12th following another poor drive.
He clawed one back with a good putt from 15 feet at the next only to find more rough at 15 and drop another shot to slip back to two over, although he finished the back nine positively with a precise wedge to five feet to set up a birdie at the 17th.
Woods did well to save par at 18 before finding the green in two at the long first and two-putting from almost 50 feet for his fourth birdie of the day, but another errant tee shot at the fifth followed by a misjudgement from the middle of the fairway at the seventh both led to bogeys.
The 14-time major champion repaired some of the damage with a birdie at the eighth, and a solid par at the ninth capped a battling performance in only his second full-field PGA Tour event since returning from back surgery.
"I hung in there well and grinded," Woods said afterwards. "I was one under early and all of a sudden I went double-bogey, bogey. I was like, 'I've got to somehow turn this thing around', and I was able to do that. I fought hard to try and keep that momentum going.
"I made really silly bogeys out there, in particular on seven. That was not very good from the middle of the fairway, but overall I thought I hung in there and grinded.
"Nobody is going low out there, it's too hard. Coming down the last probably four, five, six holes, the greens are starting to get a little bouncy and those short ones are not easy.
"I'm not that far off to really putting some good numbers out there. I've got to clean up my card - there are too many bogeys out there. If I can just clean that up, I can start making my way up the board."
