Tiger shows a little rust and a lot of frustration in Buick
SAN DIEGO (AP) – A soupy fog made Tiger Woods wait four hours before he could tee off Thursday in the Buick Invitational. Then, a mixture of sun, clouds, drizzle and rain caused him to change clothes seven times over nine holes. Worse, he hit only two fairways and muffed two chips by the time the first round was suspended.
This isn’t how he envisioned his return to the PGA Tour.
Out of competition for two months because of knee surgery, Woods showed a little rust and a lot of frustration in the two hours he spent on soggy Torrey Pines. He was at 1 under par and will return Friday to play a shot from under a tree in the rough.
Welcome back, Tiger.
“On a bright, sunny day like today? Oh yeah,” he deadpanned.
Aaron Oberholser was at 6 under par through 16 holes, although none of the 156 players completed the round. The delays totaled four hours because of fog that made it difficult to see a couple of par 3s along the Pacific Ocean.
Even in the misty conditions, fans saw what they wanted – the world’s No. 1 player back at work.
The gallery crammed around the first tee and stood elbow-to-elbow on a clubhouse balcony to get a glimpse of Woods, who had surgery Dec. 12 on his left knee.
It took awhile to see the kind of play they were expecting.
His opening tee shot was still climbing into the white shroud when Woods extended his right arm and yelled, “Fore!” as his ball sailed into the trees.
Doctors told him the best thing he could do for his knee was to avoid the trees and sidehill lies, but Woods got a little of both on the first hole. He wound up missing the green to the right with a 3-wood, flubbing a chip from deep rough and settling for par.
Woods didn’t appear to have any problem with his left knee, even crouching for a long time to study the line of his putts.
If there was threat of injury, it could have come from his rotator cuff, considering how often he changed clothes – from a rain vest on the practice range in a drizzle, to a sweater, back to the vest, then to his shirt, and back to the vest when it rained at the end.
“The problem was I didn’t dress properly,” he said. “I was either too hot or too cold.”
His temper was running on the hot side.
Woods missed the second fairway to the left, flew the green on the par-3 third hole, then missed the fairway to the right on No. 4. His approach from thick grass was in trouble as soon as it left his club.
“Darn it! Bite! Bite!” he screamed.
Instead, the ball went into the gallery, some 30 feet beyond the hole. His chip barely made it to the green, and Woods angrily tossed his wedge at the bag before the ball stopped rolling. He made bogey to go 1 over par, then slowly got back into form.
Skip Kendall was at 5 under with two holes remaining, while the group at 4 under included Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland, who had an ace on No. 3 on the North Course.
Phil Mickelson and Pat Perez, who grew up playing Torrey Pines, were at 3 under.
PGA Tour rules official Mark Russell said players would resume the first round at 7:30 a.m., local time, although that won’t be easy.
The practice range is small at Torrey Pines, and even though officials plan to erect lights in the morning, only about 40 players can hit balls at the same time.
Divots: Vijay Singh, who spent more than four hours hitting balls on the range Tuesday, withdrew because of a rib injury. … Mark O’Meara took a 9 on the par-4 fifth hole, was 7 over par through nine holes and withdrew. His father is having surgery Monday in Orlando, Fla.