British Open 2012: Grading Tiger Wood's Opening Round Performance

Tiger Woods came into the 2012 British Open as the odds-on favorite to win his fourth Claret Jug and 15th career major and played very well in the first round.

Tiger got off to a great start, birdieing on four of the first seven holes of the front nine including the par three first. He would play even-par throughout the remainder of the round outside of bogey on 15 caused by a bad tee shot. At the end of the day, Tiger finished three-under par and sits just a few strokes off of the lead.

Let’s dig a little deeper into how Tiger played throughout his first round at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, a course where he hasn’t placed well in either of his two previous championship appearances.

Driving

Coming into the British Open, Tiger had been decent from the tee box with a driving accuracy percentage of 64 percent (46th best). He was 75 percent accurate at his most recent tournament, the Greenbrier Classic.

Today, Tiger couldn’t have asked to be much better from the tee box, missing just one of fourteen fairways. That’s an incredible percentage (92.9 percent) even for Tiger.

It’s especially important to shoot right down the middle since there are a tremendous amount of sand traps and it’s nearly impossible to hit a ball out of the tall rough.

Outside of Tiger’s faulty tee shot on 15, he was absolutely flawless.

Much of Tiger’s success on the day can be credited through his great work on the tee. Without it, he could be well-over par.

Grade: A

Putting

Over the course of the season, Tiger has been pretty good on the green. He’s sank 97 percent of all puts from inside feet and 61 percent of putts from five to 10 feet. He’s actually the best putter from the 20’-25’ range this year.

Today was no different for Tiger. He putted well, but had a couple of putts come up just short.

“My pace was just slightly off on the greens,” Woods told ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi. “It was just a little bit short. The only bad putt I hit was on 12, but other than that every putt started on my line. I just needed to hit probably another six inches to a foot harder.”

Tiger referenced the 12th hole where his putt was way off and missed the cup by a good amount. He would par the hole after missing the birdie opportunity.

He averaged two putts per green in regulation, which isn’t bad by any standard. Based off of the interview, it seems that Tiger will try to put a little more muscle into his puts going forward.

Grade: B+

Irons and Wedges

Because Tiger was so accurate from the tee box, it made his second shots much easier over the course of the green. There were only three instances where Tiger missed the green in regulation.

The 15th hole—as I mentioned earlier was a bad tee shot way left of the fairway—was one of the rare shots that did not go Tiger’s way. He was buried in deep rough and the ball ended up going into another patch of rough after Tiger struck it. The second shot from the rough was much better and reached the green, which Tiger two-putted for bogey.

As Tiger saw on 15, the rough can really destroy a hole and it was good that he stayed out of it for the most part.

Grade: B+

Overall

Tiger wasn't given the best odds at winning the championship for nothing and today Tiger was, well, Tiger. It was one of the best rounds I’ve seen from him all season long as he played a very complete round of golf.

Tiger was accurate with his driver that got him out of potential trouble, landed the green in regulation very often, and just needed to hit the ball a little harder on the green to prevent excessive two-putts. He’s three-under par for the tournament and is very much still in contention to win.

Grade: A-