US Open Golf 2012: Olympic Club Course Has Tiger Woods Feeling Comfortable

You haven’t heard the name Tiger Words associated with the word “comfortable” in a long time, but that’s exactly what he felt after one round at the U.S. Open at Olympic Club in San Francisco.

Sure he may only be sitting on a one-under 69 heading into action on Friday, but that places him a mere three strokes behind the leader Michael Thompson, who resides at four-under.

While watching his playing partners Phil Mickelson (+6) and Bubba Watson (+8) implode, Woods calmly guided his ball through whatever situation he found himself in.

Rarely was Tiger in trouble, and when you aren’t staring at a tree lining up a shot, nerves tend to work in your favor.

Legendary Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell describes the brilliant performance Woods had on Thursday:

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His day was almost devoid of drama because he struck the ball so solidly, took his scandalous driver out of the bag only three times and strategized his way around this canted, constantly curving track so cleverly — working his ball left-to-right or the opposite on nearly every shot — that Woods seldom played a troubled shot.

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As Boswell points out, Woods choose to rarely bust out his driver, instead settling for a low three-wood. This allowed him to have a larger room for error on the tight fairways. The margin for error was incredibly thin, and Woods’ cautious approach paid off, despite finding his ball almost 80 yards behind Watson at times.

Woods didn’t try to crush the ball and the strategy worked out beautifully.  

Yet the most encouraging sign on Thursday was Woods’ putter. After having some serious issues throughout 2012, Woods drilled seemingly every putt he was supposed to. He drilled a 35-footer on No. 5 that reminded the crowd of a younger Tiger.

The greens are playing incredibly fast and Woods realized as much early and had few errors (aside from missing a two-footer on No. 12), which sets him up beautifully on Friday.

Woods is trying to win his first major championship since the ’08 U.S. Open, and it has clearly worn him down mentally over the last four years.

Finally he looks to be a peace. Finally he seems comfortable with his swing. Finally he is under par after Round 1 of a major. ESPN’s Rick Reilly provides us with this interesting stat regarding the results when Woods finishes under-par at the US Open:

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Tiger has opened under par at an Open four times. He won two of the first three.

— Rick Reilly (@ReillyRick) June 14, 2012"

I’m not here to tell you Woods is back, but he certainly is looking like a different man than the one we have seen for the past three years.

He finally looks comfortable again. 

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