Tiger Woods yesterday got off to a horrific start before roaring back with nine birdies in 15 holes to share the lead in the inaugural Zozo Championship in Japan as Rory McIlroy struggled.
Woods, who was three-over-par after three holes, bounced back in stunning fashion with a back-nine of 29 and a six-under-par round of 64 to top the leaderboard alongside US Open champion Gary Woodland.
“I certainly was not expecting to shoot six-under-par after that start,” Woods said. “It was ugly early and it was nice to be able to flip it. Hopefully I can keep it going.”
Photo: AP
The American duo head into today with a one-shot lead over home favorite Hideki Matsuyama at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club in Inzai.
“I was excited that fans were calling out my name,” said Matsuyama, who at 27th in the world is the highest-ranked Japanese player in the event. “We don’t normally have such big crowds.”
Woodland, who won his first major at Pebble Beach in June, never looked troubled in a blemish-free round with six birdies.
“I drove the ball well. Any time I can control the ball on the greens from the fairway and make some putts, that adds up to a pretty good day,” the world No. 18 said.
McIlroy is ranked the second-best player on the planet, but you would not have known it as he scratched around with a cold putter in a two-over-par 72, the low point being a double-bogey six on the 12th hole.
Woods’ 64 was the lowest season-opening round of his long career and came as the 43-year-old chases an 82nd PGA Tour victory to tie the all-time record held by Sam Snead. It was the most birdies that Woods has scored in 18 holes since the first round of the 2013 WGC Mexico Championship.
However, all that had not seemed remotely possible when Woods, who won his 15th major at the US Masters in April, creaked into action after a two-month layoff for arthroscopic left-knee surgery.
Starting his round on a 10th hole lined by crowds more than 10 people deep, Woods dropped three shots in as many holes with three consecutive bogeys. He steadied himself with a par at the 13th hole before turning his round on its head with three birdies in a row.
His fourth gain in five holes at the 18th hole saw him turn for home in one-under-par 35, with only two pars on his card.
By now he was firmly in the groove and three more birdies from the third, his 12th hole, took Woods to a share of the lead at four-under-par with Matsuyama and Woodland.
A two at the short seventh hole put Woods out on his own to a deafening roar from the golf-crazy, sell-out crowd of 17,734.
“It was loud. It was very loud,” he said. “The people here in Japan have come out and supported this event, and it’s been a lot of fun to play in front of them again.”
Woods made his final gain at the ninth hole where he barked for his ball to “get down” out of the rough.
“This grass — Zoysia, man. You can get some serious flyers out here, monster flyers,” he said. “The one I hit on the last hole, we were trying to hit an eight-iron 200 yards and hit it 200. That’s not something I normally do.”
The Zozo Championship offers a US$9.75 million prize pot as the middle leg of the Tour’s new megabucks Asian swing.
It began last week at the US$9.75 million CJ Cup in South Korea, won by Justin Thomas, and concludes at next week’s US$10.25 million WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai.
Under threat of a tropical storm from late morning, today’s second round is to start earlier at 7am, with the last groupings teeing off at 9am.
AL AIN OPEN
AFP, DUBAI, United Arab Emirates
English 15-year-old Josh Hill on Wednesday became the youngest player ever to win an Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) event with a two-stroke victory at the Al Ain Open.
Hill shot a final round eight-under-par 62 to finish on 17-under-par 193 in the tournament, which forms part of the MENA Tour.
At 15 years, six months and 27 days old, Hill broke the existing record of Ryo Ishikawa as the youngest winner of an official OWGR event. The Japanese player was 15 years and eight months when he won the KSB Cup in May 2007.
“I am shocked. If you had told me during the summer that I will be winning a MENA Tour title against professionals and become the youngest-ever winner of an OWGR event, I would have laughed at the notion. I guess hard work pays,” Hill said.
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