Tiger Woods Just Three Shots Off The Lead at The Arnold Palmer Invitational

It certainly wasn’t pretty, but Tiger Woods finds himself back in a familiar position near the top of the leaderboard anyway.

Despite hitting just 42.86 percent of greens in regulation, which resulted in Woods getting visibly upset on several tee boxes, he still managed to card a first-round score of 68. That score places him just three strokes behind the leader, Jason Gore.

Clubs were being thrown, slammed and tossed, and on several occasions Woods could be seen taking deep breathes while looking off into the distance in an effort to control the rage that was clearly building inside of him. 

Despite fighting a constant battle with the rough, Woods still managed to record five birdies and just one bogey, which is exactly what makes him just a little bit better than everyone else.

Whereas in the WGC-CA Championship Woods was extremely accurate off the tee but watched one putt after another lip out from within 10 feet of the hole, it was his short game and putter that saved him during the first round of the Arnold Palmer invitational.

Woods needed just 24 putts on Thursday which ranked second in the field. 

Although Woods did putt significantly better this afternoon, his short game was what really came to his rescue.

Woods was able to get up-and-down nearly 80 percent of the time after missing the green in regulation which is precisely what turned a potential disaster of a round into a two-under par round of 68.

After flirting with disaster all day, Woods is in about as good of a position as he could have hoped for.

However, as the saying goes, lightening doesn’t strike twice….even though it can see to strike for Woods every time he is in a crucial situation on the golf course.

But on a course as difficult as Bay Hill, if Woods continues to miss the fairway more than 50 percent of the time, it is bound to come back and bite him at some point.

That being said, the fact that Woods is still just three shots off the lead despite a horrific ball-striking day, could add to the confidence he seems to be gaining with each additional round since returning to the PGA Tour almost a month ago.