Another false dawn, it would seem. Tiger Woods stuck out his chest and kept a stiff upper lip. He had signed for an opening round 76 – the same mark as old-timer Tom Watson, competing in his last Open – and, instead of seeing any writing on the wall, he was talking of fighting the good fight.
“Just try and grind it out,” he said. “I’ve got to just fight, fight through it,” he said.
“I hit it really good coming home, hit some clutch putts,” he maintained.
The truth of the matter is that Woods didn’t play well.
On a day when the majority of the field hunted down birdies as if on a grouse or a pheasant shoot in the Scottish highlands, Woods laboured to a 76 that represented his worse first round score ever in the British Open.
Benign conditions
Coming in benign conditions, and on a course where he has won twice, in 2000 and 2005, Woods’s round was further evidence of his struggles to regain his former glories.
“I think we’re all shocked as players to see him struggling as he is right now. I think it speaks volumes as to what this game’s all about.
“I am standing here talking about lacking confidence and belief in what I am doing and you see a guy like that whose career highlight reel would take days to watch. . . . it’s a tough old game,” conceded Graeme McDowell of Woods’ plight.
My idol
Although a rival and prepared to go down the stretch with anyone in the quest for glory, Jason Day too found it difficult to put a finger on Woods’s woes.
“He was my idol growing up. He’s why I’m a professional , why I chased the dream of becoming a professional . . . it’s tough to see your idol struggle,” said Day.
Woods’s day started out horribly, when he dumped his approach to the first green into the Swilcan Burn.
He then bogeyed the second. By the time he reached the turn, Woods had taken 40 strokes and failed to find a birdie. He managed to correct that statistic with a birdie on the Par five 14th but, for the most part, it was a chore to get the ball in the hole.
And yet, there was no throwing in of the towel.
“I’m so far back and the leaderboard is so bunched that in order for me to get in there by Sunday, I’m going to have to have the conditions tough and then obviously put together some really solid rounds, something like what JD (John Daly) did back in ’95.
If you shoot some good, solid rounds in tough conditions like that, players can move up the board, and hopefully I’m one of them.”
Woods was looking at a half-full glass. The optimist.
