Major star Tiger has to settle for bit part

TIGER WOODS began his first round in a Major since the Masters yesterday as if the script had been prepared for him by an Oscar-winning screenwriter.

He ended it as if he had just failed an audition to be an extra in a B movie.

Having opened with three birdies in six holes, Woods splayed the remaining 12 holes in 10 over par as he recorded the highest opening round of his Major championship career at Atlanta Athletic Club, a seven-over-par 77.

Having been kept out of both the US Open and British Open through injury, the 14-time Major winner had been in optimistic mood on Wednesday as he spoke of his relief at being healthy at last and looking for his “feel” to return under tournament conditions following an opening outing of a tie for 37th at last week’s WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

Despite starting at the unprecedentedly lengthy odds of 25/1 with Ladbrokes among others, Woods began as if it was the perfect comeback, playing textbook golf to birdie the opening par-four 10th. “He’s back,” came a comment in a languid female southern drawl among the somewhat subdued gallery, and so it seemed as Woods quickly jumped onto the leaderboard, three under after six.

Then that lack of tournament rounds, just those four last week since April, came back to bite as that intimidating back nine sequence between the 15th and 18th saw Woods record double bogey, bogey, par, double bogey to go out in 37.

His inward nine was worse, a lone birdie sticking out on the card amidst another double bogey and four bogeys. It was excruciating to watch Woods in the unfamiliar position of being all at sea, just as it had been bewildering to see him fade down the stretch on the last day of the Masters.

And Tiger’s post-round comments to the media pointed to the former world number one’s frustrations.

“I thought I was playing well enough to... just go out there and play and let it go and just play by feel and see the shot, hit the shot, feel it and I’m not at that point yet,” Woods said.

“My motor pattern is getting there, and I start fighting it and I couldn’t get it back. It’s tough.”

Woods spoke like a man losing his grip on a game he had once mastered, saying his shots “don’t shape like they used to. I don’t shape the ball as much”.

Asked what adjustments he was going to make before this evening’s second round, Woods said: “It’s going to be a lot. It’s a laundry list.”