PITTSFORD, N.Y. — Tiger Woods looked like he was headed for exactly the kind of opening round he wants in a major championship Thursday at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill — one that’s under par and has him right in contention going into Day Two.
Woods, who is a week removed from his seven-shot win at last week’s WGC-Bridgestone Invitational (his fifth win of the year), spent most of his round below par — until he ended it with a double-bogey 6 on the ninth hole, his last of the day, to finish with a 1-over-par 71.
“At nine, I was completely blocked out and tried to shape one over there and I drew no lie at all from my third shot,’’ Woods said. “I was just trying to play 20 feet long and putt back and try and just get bogey. I didn’t even get over the bunker. It came out nowhere and I didn’t really have much from there, hit a beautiful putt, just lipped out.’’
Woods, who started on No. 10, got it as low as 2-under par, but could not move forward from there. He had trouble on No. 2, where he missed a short birdie putt of no longer than three feet.
“We were put on the clock on the first hole so we had to get going and try to close up the gap,’’ Woods said. “It would have been nice to take a little bit longer on that putt (on No. 2). It was a pretty tricky little putt. Looking from behind the ball, it looked like it was going to snap. Looking from behind the hole, it looked like it wasn’t going to snap. I ended up playing it somewhere in between and then blocked it.’’
Woods did not sound annoyed at being put on the clock for slow play.
“We have to be conscious of it, but we play just about every week like that,’’ he said. “So that’s nothing unusual. We have a lot of people following us and a lot of cameras going off and movement inside the galleries. We have a tendency of having that happen and we’re accustomed to it. It happens.’’
Woods, too, did not sound disappointed with the way he played.
“I played really well,’’ he said. “I made some nice key putts and the key is I left it in all the good spots too. Left it right where I wanted to leave them, so I had some free runs at putts, especially the par putts. The round realistically could have been under par easily. I’m still right there. We have got a long way to go.’’