GAINESVILLE, Virginia – Tiger Woods took a conservative 3-wood off the first hole Thursday in the Quicken Loans National when many players were hitting driver. No matter – he still pull-hooked it into the gallery, hit his second shot into a greenside bunker and lipped out a 5-footer for par before slamming his putter against his bag.
On the third hole, he missed the green well left and had to get up-and-down for bogey. A three-putt on No. 4 left him 3 over.
It was his final bogey of the day.
Woods got a fortunate deflection off a marshal left of the green on the par-5 fifth. He apologized, handed out an autographed glove and made his first birdie. Then he ran off five birdies in six holes around the turn for a 3-under 68. That left him five shots behind leaders Retief Goosen and Ryo Ishikawa at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club.
Woods said it was the first time since the Masters in April that he’s turned a bad round into a good one.
“That’s what scoring is all about,” Woods said. “I made a lot of key putts today. I ran them by the hole but I made all the comebacks, and overall I felt like I hit the ball well enough to turn it around. It was nice to actually turn it around.”
Woods is the host of the Quicken Loans National, which he won in 2009 and 2012 at Congressional in Maryland. The last of his 79 PGA Tour victories was nearly two years ago, and he has plummeted to 266th in the world.
Woods got up-and-down from a greenside bunker for birdie on the par-5 eighth. He made a 9-footer on 10 and a 7-footer on 11. He hit his approach to tap-in range on 12, the most difficult hole on the course, and ended the run with a 12-footer on 13.