BETHESDA, Md. — Two weeks after Tiger Woods blamed his poor putting for him failing to win the U.S. Open at Bethpage, Woods looked like a marksman with the flat stick yesterday.
Woods, en route to his 6-under-par 64 in the first round of the AT&T National, the event he hosts at Congressional Country Club, needed only 27 putts in his round, which included an astounding nine one-putt greens.
It was Woods’ best putting performance of the year by 22 cumulative feet in total putts.
Asked if he spent any of yesterday wondering where that was at Bethpage, Woods said, “Sometimes you just have those weeks, and unfortunately I had a week at the wrong time. But that’s golf. You have days, you have weeks, you have stretches where you putt well and you putt poorly.”
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Vijay Singh this week has quietly stopped wearing the logo for Stanford Financial after its boss, Allen Stanford, was charged with fraud for allegedly swindling investors out of some $7 billion.
Singh, who was sponsored by the company for a reported $8 million, was one of three people who reportedly offered to pay Stanford’s $500,000 bail. But he wasn’t allowed to do so because he’s not a U.S. citizen (he’s from Fiji).
He was still wearing the Stanford logo at last week’s PGA Tour event in Connecticut, but isn’t donning it on his hat and shirt this week.
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D.A. Points is two shots back of Anthony Kim after shooting a 64 and afterward he called his round “real boring,” saying, “I hit it in the fairway, hit a lot of greens.” We should all shoot such “boring” rounds.
Bryce Molder, who shot 30 on the front nine, is also two shots off the lead. In the blast-from-the-past dept., Steve Elkington shot 65.
Jim Furyk, Stuart Appleby and Daniel Chopra are 4-under.
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U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover continues to play well, finishing with a 69. Asked about being recognized more often as the Open winner, Glover said, “Yeah, I had a guy buy me a shot of water last night. He had a shot of something else, I think.”
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Kim was asked about his putting routine, which includes very little time standing over the ball before making the stroke. Asked why so quick, he said, “Bad thoughts are going to creep in. I mean, there’s nothing good (that’s) going to come out of standing over that ball very long.
“Jim Furyk stands over the ball for a minute. I don’t know what he thinks about, but everything goes in, so obviously he’s doing something right. Maybe I should try that.”
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Furyk, who went to a Wednesday night barbecue at Walter Reed Hospital, said of the wounded soldiers, “It’s amazing, their outlooks and their positive attitudes. You think you want to go there and try to cheer some people up, and you leave there just in awe of their attitude and how tough they are, and they end up inspiring you.”