PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Tiger Woods called playing partner Zach Johnson “the comeback player of the day’’ after his Honda Classic opening round Thursday.
Johnson delivered a clinic in perseverance after a poor start — a quadruple-bogey 8 on his second hole of the round (No. 11) — and went on to card seven birdies the rest of the round to finish with a 3-under-par 67.
Woods called Johnson’s impressive rally “not surprising knowing how tough this guy is.’’
When Johnson was asked what happened on No. 11, he channeled a famous Seve Ballesteros description of a bad hole, joking, “I missed, I missed, I missed, I missed, I make.
“I had no excuse other than the fact that I miss-clubbed twice and probably was overaggressive on the second one,’’ Johnson said. “After you hit one in there, you have to get it on the green. That’s just asinine.’’
Johnson said he loves “perseverance rounds,’’ which made this one special.
“It was a day where it could have gone the other way, quick,’’ he said. “But I felt great about my game going in, so it was just a matter of hitting a few solid shots.’’
Russell Henley is one shot behind leader Rory McIlroy at 6-under after shooting 64 and hitting 17 of 18 greens. On the one green he missed, the par-3 17th hole, his ball ended up half-submerged in the water and he chipped it out and made the putt to save par. … Rory Sabbatini, the 2011 winner is two shots off the lead at 5-under par, tied with William McGirt and Jamie Donaldson. Brendon de Jonge is 4-under, along with Derk Ernst, Tommy Gainey, Brice Garnett and Matt Every.
Phil Mickelson, playing the tournament for the first time since 2002, shot an even-par 70.
“I did a lot of things really well and driving the ball was one of them,’’ he said, referring to 11 of 14 fairways hit.
“What I didn’t do well was hit the right shot into this wind and get the right club to get it close. I’ve got to do a better job [Friday] of fine tuning.’’