Woods just glad to shake off the rust

DUBLIN (Ohio) • Playing his first hole on the PGA Tour in 151 days, Tiger Woods on Thursday smashed a driver 327 yards off the tee, hit his approach shot from 145 yards to within 10 feet and then sank a curling, downhill birdie putt.

He walked off the green with a bemused expression that seemed to say: "What? This is supposed to be hard?"

Two holes later, he was at it again, knocking a wedge shot from 107 yards that landed on a devilishly contoured green and stopped 13 inches from the hole for another birdie.

The rest of the day was not quite a romp to the top of the leaderboard at the Memorial Tournament, where Woods is a record five-time champion. But by any measure it was still a success, especially since the 15-time Major champion, playing on the Tour for the first time in five months because of injuries and the coronavirus pandemic, looked fit and his swing relaxed and fluid.

He finished the day at the Muirfield Village Golf Club with a one-under 71, good enough to tie him for 18th, five strokes behind first-round leader and fellow American Tony Finau, who has a one-shot lead over Ryan Palmer. Brendan Steele and 2019 US Open champion Gary Woodland lurk two back after rounds of 68.

"It's been a while," Woods said with a grin afterwards. "I felt the same eagerness, edginess, nervousness. And it was good. I was a little bit rusty, but overall it was a good start."

It was also his first round in the closed-door environment the Tour has implemented since it resumed play on June 11 after a three-month hiatus.

At times, he appeared almost preoccupied by the paucity of distractions in the Tour's new setting, which will not have fans for the rest of the season. He frequently searched the empty hillsides next to fairways as if longing for the galleries he normally attracts. Occasionally, he made eye contact with the roughly two dozen Tour officials, volunteers and media that followed him - never as a pro had such a small gaggle of people accompanied him on a round.

"There were still a lot of moving carts and a lot of media that were moving around, but the energy wasn't the same without the fans," Woods conceded. "It's a different feel. But a new reality."

Still, renowned for his steely determination, he insisted he never lost his fundamental focus.

"I didn't have any issues with energy or not having fans' reactions out there," he said, adding that he even enjoyed the less chaotic walks between holes because of the lack of spectators.

His return to the Tour was more about assessing his fitness level and the overall health of his game than assigning a score for consistency.

By that measure, Woods' 18 holes should be entirely encouraging to his legion of fans. There was none of the ungainly, awkward strides so evident during his last event in February when he finished last among those who made the cut at the Genesis Invitational and later blamed stiffness in his surgically reconstructed back.

Asked if he expected any difficulty playing and walking 18 holes for four straight days, Woods said emphatically: "No. I've gotten ready for this."

NYTIMES