A week after an impressive final round to win at Congressional, Tiger Woods shot a 1-over 71 in the first round today at the Greenbrier Classic in West Virginia, leaving him eight shots behind leader Vijay Singh.
In a word, Woods called his round “frustrating.”
“I was just a little off today,” said Woods, who drove into a hazard, leading to a double bogey and three times failed to get up and down for pars. He also needed 31 putts. “I didn’t have the speed of these greens at all. The last three tournaments (Memorial, U.S. Open, AT&T National) I played greens that were awfully quick and had a lot of swing at the end because of how fast they are. I missed every single putt high today. I never hit one that missed on the low side. I was giving too much break and didn’t work out.”
Playing with with U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson, who shot 65, and Steve Stricker Woods got off to a quick start with birdies on two of his first three holes but was sloppy around the greens, including missing a tap in from two feet.
“Simple little tap in, and I just blocked it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Singh, 49, who battled Woods for No. 1 in the world in 2004-05, shot 63, including a 6-under-par 30 on the back nine.
It was Wood’s first time playing at Greenbrier, a fact he said had no bearing in how he played. “I just didn’t make the adjustments,” he was yielding an average score of around 70. “It was a course you could tear apart today. You get the ball in the fairway here, you’re going to have a 9-iron on down and you can attack this golf course. I think most of the scores will probably be at least 2 under par or better, and most of the guys can be pretty aggressive here.”
