Tiger Woods Comes Flying Out of the Gate at the Barclays

Think Tiger Woods is done, finished, kaput?

Well, think again.

Just days after finalizing his divorce with Elin Nordegren, and less than 24 hours after admitting that off-the-course issues had taken a toll on his golf game, Woods went out and blistered Ridgewood Country Club with a six-under-par round of 65, his lowest round of the year.

Sixty-five may not sound all that impressive when considering the absurdly low scoring we’ve witnessed in recent weeks, but Ridgewood is a far more difficult and penalizing track than courses such as The Old White Course or Sedgefield Country Club.

The winning score at Ridgewood back in 2008 was an eight-under-par 276, posted by both Vijay Singh and Sergio Garcia. (Singh would go on to win in a sudden-death playoff.)

At first glance, most would assume Ridgewood is not a golf course that would suit Woods’ game.

In fact, if this were not a FedEx Cup event, Woods probably wouldn’t even be here.

Woods, as we all know, has a tendency to spray the ball everywhere, and Ridgewood’s fairways are lined with some of the largest, most mature trees you will ever see in your life.  It’s the type of point-to-point course that you’d expect to see guys like Steve Stricker, Tim Clark, Brian Gay and Zach Johnson thrive on—guys that can put the ball in play and find greens in regulation.

But the newly single Woods was a different player on this day.

Woods missed just one fairway all day (at the par-five third) and hit 83 percent of the greens in regulation.

“It's exciting to hit the ball flush like this again,” Woods said after his round.  “It's something I've been missing all year.”  

Woods is in an unfamiliar position of having to play his way into next week’s Deutsche Bank Championship, a tournament that benefits The Tiger Woods Foundation.

“I have to play well this week in order to advance and this is a good start,” Woods said.

A good start it was, and one that might have a lot of guys around Ridgewood quivering in their Foot-Joys this afternoon.

As of right now, Woods is tied for the lead with Vaughn Taylor, while Camilo Villegas, Davis Love III, and the 2009 Barclays champion, Heath Slocum, are among a group of eight players within two strokes of the lead.