Even the optimist within Tiger Woods had to accept the dark truth after a flaccid 71 in the opening round of the 52nd and last Buick Open left him eight shots off the lead and with yeoman's work to do just to make the cut at an event many expected him to win.
downlevel descriptionThis video requires the Adobe Flash Player. Download a free version of the player.
"Probably one of the worst putting days I've ever had," Woods lamented as he languished in a tie for 95th.
Probably, he didn't need to use the qualifier.
For the record, Woods had 32 putts, which should've been 33 given the bomb he made to save par on the short fourth hole was pulled but he misread the break, he admitted later, and it went in anyway.
Maybe it's too alarmist to panic — this is, after all, only the Buick Open — but it's certainly not out of order to raise eyebrows.
On the heels of what was only his second missed cut as a professional at a major less than two weeks ago, you'd think that Woods would've wanted to remind all the pretenders that there's still only one King of Golf.
Especially on a course he's loved and has historically loved him back.
Woods has won at Warwick Hills twice in eight visits, hasn't finished outside of the top four in nine years and has never finished worse than in a tie for 11th.
Since his very first round as a professional here, in 1997, in which he shot an even-par 72, Woods hasn't failed to break par.
But it was clear from the outset that Thursday was going to be a long afternoon in the heartland.
Woods dissected the fairway on the straightforward opening par 5, blocked a fairway wood but was pin high in the rough with plenty of green to work with. If he dropped a dozen balls from that spot and played left-handed, he'd make birdie more often than not.
But he stubbed his chip. Luckily, Woods hit it just fat enough to at least move the ball in the general direction of the back left pin position and had a 15-foot curler for birdie.
