Tiger Woods struggled through a disappointing first round on Thursday at the Buick Open, finishing eight strokes behind 48-year-old pace-setter Steve Lowery at the $5 million event.
Tiger Woods struggled through a disappointing first round on Thursday at the Buick Open, finishing eight strokes behind 48-year-old pace-setter Steve Lowery at the $5 million event.
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Woods, in his first event since missing the cut at the British Open two weeks ago, was upset with poor putting and feeling the pressure to score well after finishing in a share of 95th place after 18 holes.
"Didn't hit my irons very good and probably one of the worst putting days I've ever had. Just didn't hit any," Woods said. "Putted good starting out when I was warming up. Got on the greens and it was just terrible."
Woods, who missed a cut for the first time in three years at Turnberry two weeks ago, has never missed the cut twice in a row as a professional.
But after four birdies and three bogeys in much more favorable scoring conditions, the US PGA money leader has a fight just to see the weekend.
"Obviously I'm not going to get it back in one day," Woods said. "Guys are going to continue to go low. It's going to be 20-plus (under par) probably to win. So I've got to get it back over the next three days and hopefully I can.
"I not only have to play well to make the cut, I've got to play well to get myself back in contention."
US veteran Lowery matched a course record by firing a 29 on the front nine, his second nine of the day, on his way to the lead at nine-under par 63, one stroke atop Australian John Senden, who had a run of five birdies in a row.
"I putted obviously really well to shoot nine-under," Lowery said. "But the last nine holes I made all the putts, seven birdies there on the last nine. Some of them were tap-ins, but some of them were pretty good."
Lowery, who dropped a 20-footer for birdie at the eighth, was two strokes ahead of Aussie James Nitties, South Korean Y.E. Yang and Americans Vaughn Taylor and Brian Vranesh in putting conditions he called perfect, a stark contrast to Woods' nightmare day.
"Greens are pretty receptive and they have that texture that they're not going to dry out," Lowery said. "The ball hits and stays around the pin, and when you putt it, they're at good speed. "You felt like you could putt it and if it didn't go in, it wasn't going to go very far by.
"So it was kind of attack pretty much with the irons and it was rolling really good on the greens."
Lowery, whose best showing this year was 24th, won last year at Pebble Beach for his third US PGA title, the first since 2000. He has now led after the first round 19 times but has only one title to show for the achievements.
"Obviously nine-under is a great start but if you don't follow it up the rest of the week, it ain't going to hang around," Lowery said. "You have got to get it done for the last three days."
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