Tiger Woods Finds Groove Late in 1st Round at PGA Championship 2018

Tiger Woods overcame a rough start to shoot an even-par 70 in the first round of the 2018 PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis on Thursday.

At the time he entered the clubhouse, Woods was tied for 29th place and trailed leader Rickie Fowler by five strokes.

Woods started his round on the back nine and things couldn't have gone much worse for him over the first two holes, as he bogeyed No. 10 and double-bogeyed the 11th.

According to ESPN Stats & Info, starting three-over through two holes has been a rare occurrence during his career:

The 42-year-old veteran stopped the bleeding to some degree with a birdie on the par-four 12th after a fantastic approach:

Woods had another bogey on the 16th, and he was fortunate to not have two in a row after making a mess of his tee shot on No. 15.

Woods ended up in the gallery, but he blasted it out and made an up-and-down par, which would prove to be a huge moment in his round:

The 14-time major champion gave his fans some hope when he made the turn by carding his second birdie of the day on No. 18:

That momentum carried over to the par-four first in the form of another birdie to get Woods to one-over for the round.

A more confident Woods strung together several pars in a row before breaking through with the birdie he needed to return to even-par on No. 8:

Woods played it fairly safe on the ninth to close with a par and finish the round even, which seemed highly unlikely following his rocky start.

Although Woods has plenty of work to do in order to truly get into contention during Friday's second round, recent history has been kind to golfers trailing after the first round of the PGA Championship, per Golf Channel's Justin Ray:

Woods entered the PGA Championship in search of his first win since 2013 and his first major title since 2008.

It didn't initially look as though he would have a shot, but Woods did enough over the final 10 holes to remain within striking distance.

Considering his strong recent play (fourth at The National, sixth at the Open Championship), it is fair to expect Woods to make it to the weekend and potentially be in the mix on Sunday.