Bethesda, MD–
It certainly might have not been Tiger Woods’ best day of golf in his tournament, but it was a lot of other players day at Congressional today, as five players jammed the leaderboard at 4 under.
Leading the way was Jim Furyk, followed by Vijay Singh, K.J. Choi, Joe Ogilvie and Stuart Appleby, all of who shot a round of 66 to start the Innuagural AT&T National at Congressional Country Club.
So while some of the names are recognizable at the top, you might ask where is the man himself, Tiger Woods? Well you would have to look a little down the page to find Woods, who shot a dismal 3 over 73, which inlcluded seven bogeys putting him at… huh 77th place…. not a good start for the host…
“It’s one of the worst putting rounds I have had in years,” Woods said. “I’m going to have to figure out something for [Friday] because evidently what I’m doing is not even close to being right. I’ve got to fix it. I’ve got to get back in this tournament.”
If a rain delay of 18 minutes wasn’t enough for Tiger, on the 18th hole his agony of this day continued as his tee shot hit a man in the face and shoulder. Woods gave the man an autographed glove and apologized, then went on to bogey the hole with another miss from 2½ feet.
“It’s one of the worst putting rounds I have had in years,” Woods said. “I’m going to have to figure out something for [Friday] because evidently what I’m doing is not even close to being right. I’ve got to fix it. I’ve got to get back in this tournament.”
While Woods was busy figuring how to correct his mistakes, Furyk, who is not the longest off the tee was just hitting the fairways and greens right where he needed to allowing for him to correct any minor mistakes he might have made off the tee. He applauded his accuracy today and said that helped keep him on pace and made up for the lack of distance off the tee.
“This is a golf course where you’ve got to place the ball off the tee,” said Furyk, who hit 12 of 14 fairways and needed only 27 putts. “You can be as long as you want, but if you don’t get the ball in the fairway, you’re not going to score well.”
Other notable top players that were no where near the leaders today included Phil Mickelson, who seemed to be having the same problems with his wrist today on some of the easier shots on the course. He was tied for 93rd after a 4 over 74.
“I was a little rusty,” said Mickelson. “Last week I thought I was playing pretty well. I thought I hit a reasonable number of good shots, but I scored terrible. The course wasn’t that hard to keep it around par or under. I really struggled on the greens. I just didn’t make any putts.”
