Tiger Woods at Torrey Pines: Grading His Game On The South Course

Tiger Woods' season started Thursday and he did not disappoint. 

A three-under par, bogey-free round of 69 on Torrey Pines North proved to the doubters that Tiger still had game.

Today, Tiger took his game to the (historically) much more difficult South Course. 

Would he be able to reach back to 2008 and pull out some of the magic he had on the course during the U.S. Open? 

Let's take a look at his game and find out!

Driving

All day, it seemed to be the tale of two Tigers.

The Tiger of the front was stellar. That was the Tiger we all expected. The Tiger of the back, however, was not.

He ended hitting only 43 percent of fairways all day. And even though the fairways are not the easiest to hit, he needs to improve on this.

Grade: C

Irons

Tiger's iron play today was again hit-or-miss.

On the front, he put himself in a lot of good positions. In the process, he made a lot of birdies. On the back, he had a rough stretch. This caused him to make a few bogeys.

To stay in contention, he is going to need to get his iron play under control. By hitting only 61 percent of greens in regulation, Tiger is not going to win.

Grade: C

Chipping

This was absolutely awful today. Tiger's sand play was disastrous.

Sure, his irons got him there, but he better be able to get out of the bunkers and give himself decent looks at par.

His bunker play reminded me of a high-handicapper. He needs to be much more consistent in this category. His sand-save percentage was only 50 percent.

That is pretty much the worst we will ever see Tiger.

Grade: D-

Putting

Tiger's putting was good.

He started out hot on the front. Four-under in four holes requires good putting, no matter how good the iron play. And even on the back, he was still putting fairly well.

I liked his stroke today, and if he his able to continue putting like this, he will easily get a few victories this year.

He only needed 25 putts today. There is not much to complain about here.

Grade: A

Mental

Tiger's mental game Friday seemed to be all right.

He played well on the front, struggled a bit on the back. However, his struggles in the bunker and swing changes are part mental and part physical.

The physical part? Tiger has that. The mental part? Tiger seems to be struggling. He struggled with his swing on the back, and struggled to put it back together.

But he did play his last three holes in two-under par, so he does know how to take the bad with the good. 

Grade: B

Final Grade

It is hard to complain about three-under 69 on Torrey Pines South. But when you looked at the scorecard it is hard to not be a little bit disappointed.

Tiger had three bogeys on the back side, leaving one to wonder what could have been. That being said, I expect Tiger to make bogeys—I understand that is how golf works.

Either way, I like how Tiger is playing. He just had a rough stretch on the back. 

Final Grade: C