Tiger Woods Left Looking a Relic of a Bygone Era in Disastrous Start to the Open

ST ANDREWS, Fife — Sometimes the symbolism of a moment is just too hard to ignore.

The ninth and 10th holes on the Old Course at St Andrews double-back on one another, the point in the round where the players turn back toward home after an initial stretch that leaves the clubhouse farther and farther behind them. As a result, it was at this point on Thursday morning that the paths of Jordan Spieth and Tiger Woods, two tee times apart in this year's draw, finally crossed, the old and the new of golf's hierarchy meeting out there in the middle but moving in entirely different directions.

Spieth, striding toward the 10th green with the purpose of a man who knows where his next birdie (his next major?) is coming from, had already reached five-under par, on a morning where red numbers were arriving regularly for almost everyone on the course.

Tiger, the last man before Spieth to win the opening two majors of the year, cut an entirely different figure; as he trudged down the ninth, hands deep in pockets to stave off the chill, he could only bow his head as he contemplated his own error-strewn start.

Yet to even finish the ninth hole of a potential 72 this week, Woods was already nine shots adrift of the world No. 2. He would eventually card a four-over par round of 76, his worst opening round in an Open Championship and enough to leave him 11 shots behind the clubhouse leader.

At the back of the ninth green, as he waited to hit a mid-range birdie putt that would predictably slip wide of the target, Woods stared off in Spieth's general direction, perhaps contemplating an Open challenge that had died almost before it had even began.

The 39-year-old tidied things up slightly as he headed for home, even getting his first birdie of the tournament on the 14th, but even so, he ultimately walked off the 18th ahead of just one player, Kevin Streelman, in the early standings.

It was a measure of Woods' self-confidence (or hubris) that even after such a desperate round, one that had him so far behind the 65s of the two Johnsons, Dustin and Zach, his immediate thought in the aftermath was about plotting a route back into contention.

"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," Woods said, after calling the day "a mixed bag." "If you shoot some good, solid rounds in tough conditions like that, players can move up the board."

Peter Morrison/Associated Press

Making the cut might be a more pressing issue. Woods' opening rounds at St Andrews perhaps tell a general story about his career: After shooting a 74 to start as a callow amateur in 1995, his subsequent starts at the Home of Golf have been rounds of 67, 66 and 67 again. Twice he went on to win the tournament, on both occasions going away from a field that could not match his skill in all areas of the game.

He was at his peak then, or very close to it. Now he is in a phase of his career where he is shooting worse scores than he managed as an amateur, and on a day where the wind was steady throughout and soft greens were there for the taking (by comparison, one of today's amateurs, Jordan Niebrugge, shot a 67).

"It's important to take advantage of those conditions if you can," 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie, who played in the group ahead of Woods and finished six under, observed afterward. Everyone other than Woods seemed to be doing so.

His playing partners, Jason Day and Louis Oosthuizen, shot 66 and 67, respectively, while Johnson was two groups ahead of him (playing with Spieth, who finished at five under, ominously positioned already). On US television, Paul Azinger branded Woods "a middle of the pack hack"—perhaps generous, considering how few people were below him on the leaderboards.

"It's a little unfortunate to see him struggle like this because, I mean, it's just tough to see your idol struggle," Day said afterward, a sentiment perhaps shared by a crowd whose shouts of "C'mon, Tiger!" became less and less bullish with every passing hole.

Woods' day started badly and never improved from there. After raising everyone's hopes with his birdie at the brutally difficult 17th in Wednesday's Champions Challenge, Tiger caught ground before ball with his opening shot in live competition, kicking up turf as the ball sputtered down the fairway.

That left him slightly farther back than he would have wanted, albeit still with a regulation wedge shot into the generous green at the first. Instead, he surprised everyone by slamming the ball into the burn that protects the putting surface, condemning himself instantly to an opening bogey.

"I was…I was angered," Woods admitted, searching for the right word. "But, I mean, I still had 17 holes to go, so you just try to grind it out."

He had a few more errors to get out of his system first, however, dropping to two-over through two after a misjudged putt from short of the green (the result of another mishit approach), while at the fifth a glorious chance at a birdie was squandered when he spooned his second shot into an impossible spot short and left of the green. The mistake was to only worsen—a three-putt from 90 feet resulting in the dreaded six at a par five.

"How the mighty have fallen, for now," as one radio commentator muttered, just as the unheralded David Lingmerth walked down the adjacent fairway at seven under.

Two similar mistakes with his distance putting would eventually drop Woods to five over, right at the foot of the leaderboard, as the few birdie looks he created all slid past the hole. To make matters worse, his playing partners seemed to be draining their chances from similar range.

"Today he was just struggling a little bit getting into the greens," Day said. "He just wasn't hitting it close enough. He made a few mental errors around the greens, and then just tried to press from there."

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

Around the turn Woods put on his black waterproofs over the gray ensemble he had started in, despite the fact the weather had not noticeably changed and the rain was barely spitting. It was almost as if he were putting on some preemptive defences, another layer of material to somehow separate him from the embarrassing score he was putting together.

The back nine saw improvements, although his first holed putt of note (at the 13th) was still only to save par. He birdied the par-five 14th and added three calm pars, but a missed 12-footer for birdie at the 18th meant his inward nine only really saw him stop the bleeding, rather than fight back in the right direction.

"I hit it really good coming home, so that was [nice]…and I made some good clutch putts," Woods said, grasping for positives. Even he could not ignore the weight of evidence completely, however:

"I know that today is a very benign day. Guys are going to go low. Guys have been shooting good numbers. Unfortunately I did not do that."

It was the general manner of the round, however, that also confused and disappointed. During his two victories here, in 2000 and 2005, Woods famously stuck to a strategy of low, stinging irons off the tee to avoid almost every bunker on the course—using his course management, precise iron play and dead-eye putting to then lap the field.

This time, even in far softer condition, he employed the same strategy off many of the tees. But as the first hole ably illustrated, he could not find the same precision with his other clubs, as Oosthuizen and Day (and much of the rest of the field) simply took out the driver, bombed the ball down the generous fairways as far as possible and made life easy for themselves with short approaches into the receptive greens.

Back in the day, no one copied Woods' strategy simply because they did not have the ability; now it is because they would never consider handicapping themselves in that way.

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

After departing the 18th green and signing his scorecard, Woods again crossed paths with Spieth—arriving at one of two podiums set up near the clubhouse for players to talk to the media just as the Texan finished up his own post-mortem at the other microphone.

"I'm very pleased with the start," Spieth said, noting Friday's weather forecast is gloomy. "It's definitely going to be a brutal day tomorrow...today was certainly a big day to try and get off to a good start."

It is unlikely to have escaped Woods' attention that less than half the journalists listening to the 21-year-old peeled away to join the audience for the 14-time major champion, something unthinkable just a few years ago.

But it is Spieth's world now, and rounds like Thursday's do little to suggest to anyone that Woods can turn back the clock anytime soon.

All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise stated. 

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