Saturday 30 June 2018 01:09, UK
Tiger Woods again struggled for consistency on the greens as he ended the first day of the Quicken Loans National seven shots off the lead.
Woods made the decision to switch putters in a bid to halt a series of frustrating performances with the flat stick, but the results were mixed as he opened with a level-par 70 which left him with much ground to make up on co-leaders Andrew Landry and JJ Spaun.
The tournament host started with four solid pars before missing his first decent look at birdie on the fifth from inside 10 feet, but he then got into trouble off the tee at the sixth and his ambitious second with a fairway-wood failed to clear the hazard.
The mistake led to a double-bogey six, and Woods missed three good chances to repair the damage before he finally carded his first birdie of the day at the short par-four 13th, where he played it safe off the tee and pitched to three feet.
Woods was off target again at 15 following an excellent second to eight feet, but he atoned on the next green from similar range before an excellent save at the last kept him at level par for the tournament.
"I really didn't give myself a lot of good looks," said Woods, who had 29 putts for the round. "I made a couple of birdies, which is nice, but I have to do a better job to give myself some more chances.
"I rolled it well on the greens. I hit a lot of good putts and it was nice to feel that again and nice to feel the putter swing. I hit a lot of good putts on my line with the speed I wanted. I haven't done that in a while so that's the positive sign, to keep doing that. Eventually, they will start rolling in.
"I shot about the score I should have shot, but I didn't have anything going for the whole round. I was hanging in there and hanging in there, but I'm not too far back - three under is in 10th, so if I just have a few good holes early, you are right back in the game."
Landry and Spaun both kept bogeys off their cards while rolling in seven birdies to end the day in a share of the lead and one ahead of fellow Americans Billy Horschel and Andrew Putnam.
Irish Olympian Seamus Power also enjoyed an encouraging first round, making four birdies while also going bogey-free as a 66 lifted him into the top 10, while Ryder Cup hopeful Francesco Molinari was one stroke further back.
The Italian, winner of the BMW PGA Championship last month before finishing runner-up on home soil a week later, birdied four of his first seven holes after starting on the 10th but was unable to keep his momentum going.
Molinari parred 10 of his remaining 11 holes while dropping his only shot of the day at the fourth, where he tugged his drive into water on the left, as he closed on three under alongside Aussie pair Marc Leishman and Geoff Ogilvy.
Rickie Fowler, the highest-ranked player in the field this week, produced a similar performance to Woods as he recovered from being two over to get back to level with two late birdies, including one at the last after spinning his approach back to three feet.
