Tiger Woods fired his lowest round in two years on Thursday, launching his quest for a place in the Fedex Cup playoffs with a sparkling six-under-par 64 at the Wyndham Championship. Woods, bidding to bounce back from a disappointing missed cut at last week’s PGA Championship, roared back to form with seven birdies and a bogey at Greensboro’s Sedgefield Country Club.
The performance was the former world No. 1’s lowest on the PGA Tour since a second-round nine-under-par 61 at the 2013 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational.
It was also Woods best score in an opening round in three years, when he carded a 64 on the opening day of the 2012 Deutsche Bank Championship.
Photo: AFP
The round left Woods two off the lead, behind William McGirt, Erik Compton and Tom Hoge, who all carded eight-under-par 62s.
Woods, who is playing the Wyndham Championship for the first time, needs to win this weekend to force his way into the post-season picture. A victory would guarantee him a spot in the first leg of the four-tournament playoffs, although a solo second finish could also be enough to elevate him into the top 125 players eligible for the post-season.
A relaxed and smiling Woods, showing no sign of the gloom that has enveloped his game this year, said his putting display had been key to the round.
Photo: AFP
“I felt very good out there today. I hit a lot of good iron shots, made some putts, a round that probably could have been two to four-under-par turned into six,” Woods told reporters. “Finally I got something out of my round.”
“My iron play was very solid, but it was nice to finally get some putts going in and on top of that it was nice to make some par putts,” he added.
“It’s nice to make birdie putts, but I think those par putts are probably — I feel more energetic when I make those putts than I do a birdie,” Woods said.
Woods insisted that despite his disappointing performance at Whistling Straits, he had always believed a return to form was within reach.
“I know it’s crazy to say, but I wasn’t playing that poorly at the PGA. Today I felt the rhythm of the round and felt that I was starting to feel the numbers, hitting the ball right on the number, the right shape, hold the ball on the hills on tee shots. I was getting into the flow of the round,” Woods said.
Teeing off on the 440-yard par-four 10th, Woods set the tone on his opening hole, chipping in from 54-feet for his first birdie of the day. He stumbled with a bogey on the next hole, but reeled off three more birdies in his outward nine to be three-under at the turn.
Three more birdies on the back nine — including birdie putts of six feet, 11 feet and seven feet — put him at six-under before he curled home an 11-footer to save par on the last to complete a fine morning’s work.
Just ahead of Woods were a cluster of three players — Jim Herman, Morgan Hoffmann and Derek Ernst — tied for fourth on seven-under after carding 63s, one clear of Woods, with Germany’s Martin Kaymer, Sweden’s Carl Pettersson and Davis Love III tied for seventh.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to