Tiger Woods: Early Round Success at Chevron Doesn't Mean Tiger Is Back

Tiger Woods is atop the leaderboard and nobody is batting an eyelash.

Woods started Thursday red-hot with four birdies on the front nine holes at the Chevron World Challenge Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, but consecutive bogeys on 15th and 16th dropped him to second behind K.J. Choi by day's end with a three-under(-par) 69.

After the round Woods sounded thrilled just to make it under par:

"

Anything under par is a good day today with the wind up.

"

There were nasty gusting winds when play began in the morning, but the winds had really died down by the time Woods and Choi teed off. He was at a real advantage over the majority of the competition and was still just happy to be over par.

That’s his goal at this point—merely getting under par. Golf is all about repetition and Woods has been neglecting his swing for far too long. The skank scandal is too far in the rear-view to be blamed at this point; now his issues center around a knee injury that just can’t seem to heal. He rushed back to the links too quickly this summer and it cost him big time.

I know the term baby steps can be applied here, but it’s hard to get too excited about one solid round with a distinct wind advantage.

Did I also mention that he has hosted this tournament for the past 13 years and knows the course like the back of his hand? I’m not trying to discount all of the money he raises for this event, but it’s worth pointing out how familiar he is with the course.

It’s also worth noting that the PGA had to breathe a huge sigh of relief when Woods “only” slipped to No. 49 in the world in September; the cutoff for this week’s tournament requires you to be in the top 50.

In other words, this week is all about Tiger, regardless of how he plays.