Story By : Erin Zollars
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Gainesville, VA-
Tiger Woods looked he was going to be as bad as the weather this afternoon. Instead he rallied his game on the back 9 and sort of looked like he had his form back to where it was prior to his back injuries.
It was on the 10th tee where Woods started his rally. He his four consecutive approach shots inside 12 feet, making all four birdies putts to turn a 1-over round into a 3-under effort that had the weather-weakened crowd something to finally cheer about.
“I didn’t do anything different (after the poor start),” Woods said afterward. “I said stay patient and it will turn, which I did. I turned it around.”
Retief Goosen opened with a bogey-free 63 highlighted by eight birdies, matching his lowest score since the third round of the 2012 RBC Canadian Open.
Playing in his 286th PGA TOUR start, Goosen has seven career PGA TOUR wins. His last victory was the 2009 Valspar Championship, 119 starts ago.
Goosen is making his 24th start of the 2014-15 PGA TOUR season where he has recorded two top 10s (Frys.com Open/T3 and Northern Trust Open/T8).
Other notables for the day came when Rickie Fowler recorded his second career ace on TOUR on his final hole (No. 9) with a 7-iron from 184 yards. Fowler has played 1,880 par 3s since his last hole in one at the 2009 Frys.com Open (No. 6 in the final round).
Fowler is the only Quicken Loans player ambassador on TOUR, a partnership which began the week of The Masters. To commemorate Fowler’s ace today, Quicken Loans will award one year’s worth of mortgage payments to Tom Roberts of Chicago.
Tommorow’s tee times have Woods paired with the same combo as today and a bit earlier than the wait he had to day during the storm. The lower heat should help many of the players going into the weekend, which is a huge one for Woods if he hopes to qualify for the Bridgestone Open.
