SAN MARTIN – Tiger Woods returned to the PGA Tour at the
Frys.com Open after an 11-week layoff. But through most of a wet
first round Thursday at CordeValle Golf Club, an amateur from Los
Alamitos overshadowed the 14-time major winner.
SAN MARTIN – Tiger Woods returned to the PGA Tour at the Frys.com Open after an 11-week layoff. But through most of a wet first round Thursday at CordeValle Golf Club, an amateur from Los Alamitos overshadowed the 14-time major winner.
Paired with Woods, Patrick Cantlay, a sophomore at UCLA, outshot and outdrove Woods throughout the day on the way to climbing as high as tied for third eventually signing off on a 2-under 69, tied for 11th.
Americans Brendan Steele, Briny Baird, Garrett Willis and Matt Bettencourt share the lead at 4-under-par 67 after Day 1.
Woods, clearly the main attraction, delivered a 2-over 73.
“I was very pleased at shots I was hitting during most of the day, but I got nothing out of the round on the green,” Woods said.
With a hoard of spectators following his celebrity partner, Cantlay slowly started to receive more and more support from the crowd as the round went on – and Woods continued to struggle. On the 480-yard sixth hole, Cantlay received a large cheer after carding a birdie with a chip-in from about 33 feet, responding with a simple tip of the cap.
Woods struggled on the second and third holes, bogeying both to flip his first-hole birdie into a 1-over. He mixed good shots with bad ones throughout the afternoon, including a horrendous second hole that saw Woods take three shots inside two sand traps. Woods cut his drive to the right into a sand trap midway up the fairway. On his next shot, pushed the ball into another sand trap just feet from the green. Woods’ next swing pulled a chunk of sand into the air, but left the ball inside the trap. Woods recorded a bogey to drop to even and fell to 1-over after missing a short putt to save par on No. 3.
Through 13 holes, Woods hit six sand traps, including two on the second, and doubled bogeyed on the 12th hole after losing his ball, sending him to 3-over.
Meanwhile, Cantlay remained consistent throughout the day; his only one blemish was a bogey on No. 13.
“It’s a 72-hole tournament, let’s see how it goes,” Cantlay said.
Woods birdie No. 17 but missed a chance to drop another stroke on No. 18. Woods placed much of the blame on faulty putting.
“That’s probably one of the worst putting rounds I’ve ever had,” Woods said. “I can’t putt the ball any worse than I did today.”
And continued, “I just had a hard time hitting my stroke and then I was started altering it. And it was all over the place. My stroke got worse because I was trying to do it. And then, you know, I started losing confidence in it because I wasn’t hitting my line. So it was a downward spiral.”
Live Oak High graduate John Ellis, 31, also struggled, failing to card anything lower than par. Ellis finished 6-over, placing him 129 out of 132 players.
Erick Justesen, 26, another LOHS graduate, opened in the afternoon on the back nine and was 1-under through the first seven holes. He sank a birdie on the 17th after hitting both the fairway and green on the 358-yard par 4. He finished at even par after a birdie at No. 18.
Both Steele and Baird got off to fast starts and were in early with their 67s.
“I did a lot of stuff good,” Baird said. “I didn’t do anything spectacular. The conditions out there weren’t easy.”
Players were met with temperamental weather all day long. Once the sun came out, rain was soon to follow.
The weather slowed Steele through the front nine. But once he acclimated to the weather, Steele started to pull away.
“It was a little cold and rainy this morning, and the ball wasn’t carrying very far,” he said. “We were warming up in the dark, and it was a little tough to get going early, but once I made the turn, things started to click.”
Steele shot five birdies on the back nine.
The weather also hampered defending champion Rocco Mediate, who finished even with a 71.
“(It was a) tough day for me – cold,” Mediate said. “Tough day for all of us, but I’m old.”
The weather didn’t keep fans away, though. The Open is expecting “five-times” more people than last year’s attendance, tournament spokesmen have said.
Along with reigning British Open champ Louis Oosthuizen, Woods and Cantlay are scheduled to tee off at 7:40 a.m. Friday. Justesen begins at 8:50 a.m., and Ellis at 1:20 p.m.
Continued coverage of the Frys.com Open at freelancenews.com and on Twitter @Hollistersports.
Name. Thurs. Total
T1. Brendan Steele -4 67
T1. Briny Baird -4 67
T1. Matt Bettencourt -4 67
T1. Garrett Willis -4 67
T4. Six tied at -3 68
Other notables:
T11. Ernie Els -2 69
T11. Patrick Cantlay (A) -2 69
T11. David Duval -2 69
T11. Kevin Na -2 69
T83. Tiger Woods +2 73
