If the goal Thursday was to bury ghosts and quickly set a fresh tone for the new year, Tiger Woods failed.
Though he certainly had his chances to do something special at Torrey Pines, ultimately this wasn’t the rebirth of the superhero of 2000 as much as it was a continuation of the evolution of 2010 — of a man still in search of his game, still not quite sure of himself.
If the goal was less immediate, more big-picture, then Thursday was an acceptable beginning, a 3-under-par 69 that left Woods tied for 22nd at the Farmers Insurance Open. He was five strokes back of first-round leader Sunghoon Kang.
“I’m happy with the way I played,” Woods said.
I’m not sure I believe that.
Even if he felt he hit the ball well enough, he certainly wouldn’t have been happy with the way he scored.
“It could have been a lot better,” he later conceded.
Woods started this, maybe the most important season of his career, at 9 a.m. on a perfect Southern California winter’s day, launching a beautiful cut 3-wood high into the blue, cloudless sky.
But with a short iron in his hand on the easier of the two Torrey Pines courses, the North, Woods came up and out of the shot and missed the green to the right.
His face contorted, his look was one of exasperation.
Not this again, he must’ve thought.
This miss has become the standard one for Woods over the past year and a half. Interestingly, he hadn’t hit one of these the day before as I watched him during the pro-am.
But this wasn’t a pro-am.
Maybe even the great Tiger Woods gets nervous?
Woods had short-sided himself. There were many times last year when he’d have made bogey from just such a place; robbing himself of any momentum.
This time, though, Woods steeled himself, chipped well and saved par.
After a routine par on the next, Woods made his best swing of the day, a 3-iron from about 225 yards that came to rest 3 feet from the flag.
It looked like he was just getting going, but as the day wore on, it became clear he wasn’t ever going to find a high gear.
That was especially obvious after Woods failed to birdie any of the four par-5s, despite all of them being reachable in two shots.
Although his long game has improved greatly under the tutelage of new coach Sean Foley, it’s noticeable just how uncertain and tentative Woods is from inside 100 yards.
Maybe that’s the last piece of the puzzle to fall into place — and maybe it’ll only come once Woods has real confidence in what he’s doing — but the harsh reality is that it’s hard to score on a course like the North without hitting wedges close to the hole.
Even though Woods missed only three greens — and made no bogeys — the truth is that he had very few realistic chances at birdies.
“I kept leaving himself above the hole,” he later bemoaned.
“Every putt that I had was breaking 2, 3, 4 feet from above the hole. These greens are bouncy enough that you just can’t make those putts.
“I’ve got to put myself in better spots, below the hole.”
It was telling that after speaking to journalists, Woods headed straight for the practice green and worked on his stroke.
If there was an upside for Woods it was that the North course, which historically is three or four shots easier than the South — where the U.S. Open was held in 2008 — has been beefed up considerably.
“To tell you the truth, the North is playing almost as hard as the South now with the new tee boxes,” said John Daly, who raised eyebrows with an opening 67 on the South.
“Honestly, I think the fairways are a little more narrow. It’s a hell of a test of golf now. It’s not a pushover like it has been in the past.”
Woods said he felt more confident with the mechanics of the swing he’s learning.
“Obviously, we need more work, but it’s progressing,” he said.
Is it progressing quickly enough, though, for Woods to win for the sixth straight time at Torrey Pines?
