Tiger Woods at Memorial Tournament 2015: Thursday Leaderboard Score, Reaction
Tiger Woods struggled mightily off of the tee en route to a one-over 73 on Thursday in the first round of the 2015 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club.
Woods, who's playing in his first event since the Players Championship one month ago, looked completely out of whack with the driver. He was able to string together some more consistent play on the front nine (he started on the back) but couldn't totally overcome the early woes.
Let's look at how his opening round played out while grouped with Jason Day and Patrick Reed. His scorecard is followed by the current leaderboard and a recap of his wild trip around Muirfield.
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Round 1 Scorecard
| Par | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 36 |
| Strokes | 5 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 40 |
| Total | +1 | +2 | +2 | +3 | +2 | +2 | +1 | +2 | +4 | - |
| Par | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 36 |
| Strokes | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 33 |
| Total | +4 | +3 | +3 | +3 | +3 | +2 | +1 | +1 | +1 | - |
Current Leaderboard
Thursday Recap
Woods has endured plenty of ups and downs throughout his career. There have been incredible hot streaks but also some droughts during swing changes or while going through personal issues. The one constant has been his expectation to contend every time he shows up to an event.
This week is certainly no different. Bob Harig of ESPN.com passed along comments from the 14-time major champion, who talked about trying to find top form: "It's about peaking at the right time, getting everything organized. The main thing is I want to be able to start playing well again, be in contention with a chance to win. I was there at Augusta with a chance, I'd like to get there more often and give myself more opportunities to win."
His limited schedule—this is just his second event since the Masters in early April—makes it difficult to find any tournament rhythm, though. He was once again erratic off of the tee with the driver, and it cost him dearly.
Woods bogeyed each of the first two holes to put himself behind the eight ball immediately. ESPN Stats & Info shared an interesting tidbit based on those early struggles:
After another bogey on No. 13, he was able to right the ship for a brief stretch. It should come as little surprise that it was the part of the round in which the driver came out of his hand for two tee shots, and he turned it into a couple of birdie looks.
Sandra Golden of WCNN noted by the time he reached the 17th tee box he was only one over:
The last two holes of his opening nine were a mess, though. He bogeyed No. 17 after going right off of the tee, but that was nothing compared to the 18th. The Golf Channel's Tiger Tracker highlighted just how much of a disaster that tee shot was:
Woods carded a double-bogey to make the turn with a four-over 40 on the back nine.
He started showing more positive signs on the front side. After a par on the first, he rolled in a nice birdie putt on No. 2 to get one of the lost strokes back, as the PGA Tour highlighted:
After a trio of pars, including a couple of nice scrambles to avoid giving shots back, Woods hopped aboard the birdie train for a quick ride starting at No. 6. His back-to-back birdies brought him to within one stroke of level par.
Justin Ray of the Golf Channel showcased the superstar's success in the event as he climbed back up the leaderboard after nearly reaching the bottom:
Woods finished the day with a couple of pars. After making some trips to rarely visited areas of the course during his first nine holes, he closed without a bogey over the final nine. It was quite a turnaround, although his play off of the tee still had some hiccups.
Tiger Tracker provided some final stats:
Jason Sobel of ESPN.com summed up the situation well:
Harig pointed out Woods has never missed the cut in this event:
Obviously, he'll need to play more like he did during Thursday's second nine to keep that streak alive Friday. If he's able to find more fairways, the rest of his game is seemingly at a level where he could even make a charge.
In the bigger picture, Woods faces a dilemma. He's made it clear in recent years how important his family and being a father is at this stage of his life. That said, playing such a reduced schedule makes it incredibly difficult to find and maintain a high level of play, as recent rounds have illustrated.
It's something he'll need to think about moving forward if he wants to get back to a point where he's a legitimate threat in major tournaments. For now, he just needs to worry about getting his play off of the tee to a point where he at least has a chance to make up some ground.
Woods, Day and Reed are scheduled to go off at 1:05 p.m. ET Friday for Round 2.
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