DORAL, Fla. — All eyes were on Tiger Woods on Thursday, from the moment he appeared at the practice range to prepare for his opening round at the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Trump National Doral.
On Sunday, Woods withdrew from the Honda Classic with lower back spasms after playing the 13th hole of his final round. After three days of rehab, he teed it up on Thursday without having played a practice round on the newly redesigned Blue Monster or having hit a full shot since his withdrawal on Sunday.
The results were mixed in the rain-shortened first round, with Woods tied for 47th place at 2-over par through 10 holes.
That has him five shots behind the five leaders at 3-under par. Harris English — one of just six players who finished their rounds because of a 2-hour, 24-minute weather delay with strong storms in the area — is tied with Jason Dufner, Hunter Mahan, Francesco Molinari and Patrick Reed, all who have not completed their first rounds.
First-round play will resume at 8:45 a.m Friday, followed by the second round.
Woods said before leaving the course he “felt a lot better’’ Thursday than he had all week.
“Warm-up was good and I felt good all day, even through the delay,” he said. “I’m ready to go back out [Friday] and play well.’’
He’s going to need to play better than he did Thursday if he’s going to get into contention. Woods particularly struggled on the greens, taking 20 putts in his first 10 holes, including a three-putt on the par-5 eighth hole, where he was on in two and had an eagle putt from 34 feet away.
“It should be a long day [Friday] for all of us,’’ Woods said. “Hopefully, I can get back out there in the morning, play well and work my way back to even par by the end of the first round and then shoot a low one in the afternoon.
Woods hit 4-of-8 fairways and 7-of-10 greens, but is ranked 67th in the field of 68 in strokes gained putting. This has been a problem for him this year, with five three-putts in 54 holes at Torrey Pines last month.
Putting was not a problem for English, who took 32 of them en route to his 69, though a final-hole bogey on No. 18, where he hit his tee shot into the water somewhat marred his round.
“Did I cuss the golf course?’’ English said. “There was a couple times, I would say. With the wind, it’s very, very hard to hit it in the fairway. You can hit decent drives and I feel like if you miss it at all, you’re going to be in a bunker and it makes it very difficult from there.
“I think they did a really good job re‑designing the golf course, although I’ve never played it before. It’s a tough golf course. I know Mr. Trump wanted a very tough test on the Blue Monster, and I think that’s what he’s got.’’
English said it was an odd feeling returning to the golf course with all the fans having left during the bad weather.
“It was a little weird,’’ he said. “I said I feel like I’m playing junior golf again out here. There’s nobody watching our group. You’re just out there, you’d make birdie, nobody would clap.’’
Dufner elicited a lot of applause with his start — four birdies on his first five holes. He started on the back nine, and the wind was at his back on several holes, allowing him to be more aggressive. He managed only one more birdie on the last 11 holes he played, though.
“It was a difficult day to kind of be confident, but I think everybody’s kind of feeling their way out there right now,’’ Dufner said. “So all in all, good day, and you’re not going to go through this tournament on this golf course anymore with no bogeys.
“Everybody’s going to be making some bogeys here and there. So [I’m] pretty happy with where I’m at.’’