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MCILROY ALSO BIRDIES! The star trio all birdie the last and the atmosphere is rocking at Riviera. What an afternoon. Woods: -2 Thomas: -3 McIlroy -4
BIRDIE-BIRDIE-BIRDIE! Woods holes from 7ft on the last for a spectacular finish to card a two-under-par 69. Incredible.
THOMAS BIRDIES 18 JT holes a putt from just off the green to shoot a three-under-par 68. Woods up next.
WOODS MATCHES HIM! Tiger also stuffs a wedge in there on 18 and will also have around 7ft for birdie. If he holes it, that would be a birdie-birdie-birdie finish!
MCILROY WITH A BEAUTY INTO 18 Rory will have inside 5ft to shoot a bogey-free four-under-par 67. Really solid today.
TIGER'S BIRDIE PUTT ON 17... TIGER!! Back under par. pic.twitter.com/j2RXnl7nrIFebruary 17, 2023 See more
TIGER'S DRIVE DOWN 18... Oh my. That might just be his best of the day. Buttercut fade. Picks the tee up instantly. It's gone miles. 317 yards to be precise to leave him 151 yards into the green.
WOODS' BIRDIE ON 16: Lovely ????pic.twitter.com/5czEsnFEiUFebruary 17, 2023 See more
WOODS BACK UNDER PAR Tiger holes it from 23ft on the 17th, center cup! It had plenty of right-to-left break on it and he judged the speed and line to absolute perfection. It's birdie-birdie to get him back to one-under. Some serious grit shown on this back nine. Love it!
WOODS' BIRDIE PUTT ON 17... It's in!!!
NOT THE BEST FROM WOODS Tiger can only get it to around 25ft with his chip shot. Turns out it was a little tougher than I first thought but he probably wasn't best pleased with his effort. It came up shy and then fell away left.
SOLID SECOND SHOT FOR WOODS ON 17 A bit of a push-fade with a fairway wood but he's got it all the way back there so it's easy gone 280, just missing the back, right of the green. Should be a relatively simple chip shot to give a good look at birdie. McIlroy fires his approach with an iron miles right.
ANOTHER BOMB DOWN 17 Yet another fairway found from Tiger down the 17th. A bomb fade straight down the middle, this time going 332 yards. He'll have 276 left into this beastly par-5.
IMPRESSED WITH WOODS TODAY Having followed plenty of Tiger Woods comebacks over the years, I can't say I was expecting much from him today but he has definitely surprised me a little bit. The round could have got away from him mid-way through the back nine and he could easily be two or three over par now. His driving has been excellent, his putting has been excellent and everything in between has looked a little rusty still. Really been grinding it out well.
BIRDIE FOR WOODS! Tiger converts his five-footer on the 16th for a glorious 2. He's back to level-par and has the par-5 17th ahead before the final par-4 18th.
KEITH MITCHELL IN AT SEVEN-UNDER The American matches Max Homa's 64 thanks to a tap-in birdie on the 18th.
GREAT SHOT ON 16! Woods hits a punchy-fade into the right-hand pin on the par-3 16th and it's delightful! 10ft for birdie perhaps? He's really battled on this back nine and has that to get back to level-par. Update: It's 5ft!
WOODS PARS 15 Tiger cleans up from 4ft for his fairway, GIR, two-putt par on the 15th. Stays one-over with a par-3, par-5, par-4 finish ahead. How he'd love to get in at level par, or better.
RORY'S CHIP-IN ON 14... This got him to three-under: RORY! pic.twitter.com/6yrARjCjDfFebruary 17, 2023 See more
4FT FOR PAR? Woods' 57ft birdie putt swings a lot from right-to-left and probably leaves him with around 4ft to save his par. Tricky but shouldn't be too much of a problem to stay one-over...
WOODS FINDS THE GREEN ON 15 From 148, he flushes a 9-iron but its half a club too much and ends up 57ft away from the pin. He'll be happy to walk away with a par.
BEAUTY DOWN 15 FROM WOODS A perfect little fade down 15, suiting the dogleg, from Tiger. In position A, 331 yards down the middle with 148 left in. Good birdie chance...?
WOODS PARS 14 Not the best of putts from 18ft for birdie. Comes up short and breaks right. Easy par though! Stays one-over.
MCILROY CHIPS IN! Rory chips in from just off the front edge of the par-3 14th and gets to three-under-par. He hasn't had his best stuff today, especially off the tee, but is bogey free around Riviera and putting together a sneakily-good round.
BEAUTY INTO 14 After playing partners McIlroy and Thomas come up short, Woods feathers a cutty 6 iron from 183 into the heart of the 14th green and it uses the contours to settle 18ft away for birdie.
HUGE CROWDS The crowds following the Woods/McIlroy/Thomas group are massive, and that's only amplified when you see the (lack of) crowds following all the other groups. Woods really is the needle.
WOODS PARS 13 Taps in his three-footer and remains one-over-par. Par-3 up next.
SHOULD BE A PAR AT 13 Woods' chip shot looked fairly simple and he plays it well, popping it up and letting it roll right-to-left to within around 3ft of the hole. Should make for a good par save to hopefully steady the ship a little.
COMES UP SHORT Woods' 7-iron into 13 comes up short, right and kicks down towards the green but just off the putting surface. Short game skills set to be tested again.
WOODS INTO THE CROWD ON 13 Tiger pushes his drive down the right on the par-4 13th into the crowd, with Thomas and McIlroy also missing it down the right. Woods' tee shot flew 282 yards and he's got 182 left, but he may be impeded after finding the trees. Update: Lie looks to be good and doesn't seem to be impeded. All good.
BOGEY AT 12 Woods misses his par attempt left. Bogey-par-bogey start to the back nine and he's now one-over-par.
DECENT CHIP FROM TIGER Woods floats a wedge up from right of the green on 12 and it runs up to around 7ft short of the pin. Looked like it was going to much shorter so all-in-all a pretty decent result. Big putt coming up to avoid dropping to over-par.
MISSED GREEN ON 12 FOR WOODS Tiger manages to get a nice lie after a spectator stood on his ball in the right rough, He pulls out a 4-iron on the treacherous 12th and just pushes it a touch, missing the green to the right.
WOODS HASN'T LOST ANY LENGTH He's averaged over 338 yards today, ranking 2nd in the field for driving distance. Tiger Woods ranks 2nd in driving distance on day one of the Genesis Invitational with an average of 338.3 ydsFebruary 16, 2023 See more
ANKLE UPDATE Not great, but doesn't seem to be putting him off...yet. Tiger is using a club to help him walk. @ESPNCaddie took this photo pre-round which shows how the troublesome ankle is secured. pic.twitter.com/geLIhNtO6GFebruary 16, 2023 See more
THE TOUGH 494 YARD PAR-4 12TH AWAITS This beastly, dogleg-right par-4 starts a spell of difficult holes on the back nine. Woods fades it a bit too much and finds the right rough, joining McIlroy who does not appear to be finding many fairways.
WOODS FOR BIRDIE ON 11... Ahhhh. A beautiful effort from 16ft with a bit of right-to-left on it but it just slides by on the high side. Opportunity missed there, having been 220 out with his drive. Still level par.
MCILROY TO TWO-UNDER Beautiful little pitch shot from the World No.2. It lips out and leaves him 2ft for birdie. I'm giving it to him.
BIG FLOP SHOT From the rough, Woods bizarrely goes for the full swing parachute shot and it comes up on the green but short of the pin. Seemed a slightly odd choice when there was nothing in his way, but who am I to question the great man. He has 16ft for birdie.
APPROACH INTO THE PAR-5 11TH Woods, who hit the longest drive down 11 of 338 yards, left himself 223 yards into the par-5 with his second. With a long iron, he just pulls it down the left and comes up around 15-20 yards short of the green. Should still have a good chance of birdie.
GOOD DRIVE DOWN 11 Woods hits a power fade down the 11th that just ends up running out of fairway down the right. Another good drive from Tiger. All three of the star trio have missed the fairway right.
BOGEY ON 10 A beautiful left-to-right 8 footer finds the center of the cup. Good sign there and damage well and truly limited. Long par-5 coming up next.
WOODS' SECOND BUNKER SHOT He does well with his splash shot but he's got work to do to save his bogey as it just grabs on the fringe. 8ft left to save a five.
BAD TO WORSE From 30 yards, Tiger hits a heavy-handed pitch shot and it runs through into the bunker. Ouch.
WOODS CHUNKS HIS BUNKER SHOT From 51 yards...and it's a chunk. He's going to need a good up-and-down here on the supremely tricky 10th to save par. It barely measures 300 yards but both Woods and Thomas aren't even on the green after two shots.
WOODS IS ENJOYING HIMSELF OUT THERE (Image credit: Getty Images)
THE ICONIC DRIVABLE 10TH AWAITS Woods goes all out with driver on the iconic 10th and hits a high fade but it comes up well short in the bunker some 40 yards shy of the green. That's going to be a very tricky shot. Update: His drive went just 260 yards and he's left with 51 yards to the pin.
ONE-UNDER-PAR FRONT NINE His birdie putt on the 9th was tracking but just lacked speed. Another roll and it was in. Yet another easy par and he turns in one-under. Very good.
TIGER'S BEAUTY INTO 8... This set up his second birdie of the day to reach one-under-par: Gorgeous pic.twitter.com/R9UVFyeMe6February 16, 2023 See more
SOLID APPROACH INTO 9 From 144 yards, Woods' 9-iron lands past the pin and settles to around 20ft. Decent look at birdie to close out the front nine.
WOODS 323 YARDS DOWN THE 9TH (Image credit: PGATour.com)
WOODS PIPES IT DOWN 9 Tiger with the honor and he hits a high, bomb fade up the 9th. Over 300 yards carry again, dead centre.
WOODS TAPS IN FOR BIRDIE Oh yeah. Back under par.
MCILROY'S 'BAD' DRIVE This was the drive I mentioned just now where Rory dropped his driver... It went 339 yards. This went 339 yards ????pic.twitter.com/88tlyBKCjEFebruary 16, 2023 See more
WOODS' BUNKER SHOT ON 7... This was from earlier, the putt just rolled by on the high side: Going right at the flag.@TigerWoods knocks it close from the bunker on No. 7. pic.twitter.com/pwlmW7hj93February 16, 2023 See more
WOODS' APPROACH INTO 8 From 113 yards he floats a wedge in there hole high and it stops on a dime. Oh yes! Tap in birdie coming up and Tiger will be under par again. That was gorgeous.
LEADERBOARD: (Image credit: Google)
WOODS FINDS THE FAIRWAY DOWN 8 A lovely little fade off the left-hand bunker finds the fairway with driver. McIlroy dropped his driver in disgust after a 300+ yarder that just missed the fairway left.
JT/RORY UPDATE Thomas bogeys 7 to fall back to two-under. His wedge found the bunker in the end. McIlroy's four footer slides by to remain one-under.
WOODS FOR BIRDIE ON 7... Oooh! His right-to-lefter just slides by, grazing the hole with slightly too much pace. Solid par. I must say, I'm very impressed with Woods so far.
TIGER'S WILD PAR ON THE 5TH No pictures on the scorecard... pic.twitter.com/HifwZyRao2February 16, 2023 See more
WOODS FROM THE FAIRWAY BUNKER... From 127 yards (lie is all good) Woods hits a beauty! It almost threatens the hole and zips back and right to leave a 10 footer for birdie. Beautiful.
MCILROY IN CLOSE Rory stiffs a wedge and will most likely get to two-under. JT is three-under but has hit a shocker with his gap wedge, pushing it well right of the green into the trees. "That's about as bad a shot I've seen Thomas hit," Nick Dougherty says on Sky.
BUNKERED AT 7 Woods takes out a fairway wood off the short par-4 7th and just tugs it left into the sand. Doesn't look great from the one angle I saw on TV but fingers crossed it's not too bad. Should be left with around 130-140 in I'd imagine.
SO GOOD TO SEE HIM BACK (Image credit: Getty Images)
HOW'S HE WALKING? Not great according to Golf Monthly's Andy Wright, who's following Woods/McIlroy/Thomas on the ground at Riviera. Hardly a surprise I guess but it doesn't seem to be affecting his golf. Smoke show down the 3rd by Tiger, 15 yards clear or Rory/JT. Still not walking great, though, and is adjusting the strapping on his right ankle on the 4th teeFebruary 16, 2023 See more
TEXAS WEDGE ON SIX... AND IT'S BEAUTIFUL He opts for the putter...and nearly holes it! Superb. Came through about 5-10ft of fairway up the hill with a big swing to the right and it nestles up to within a foot. Easy par in the end. Still level.
TIGER'S AWKWARD LIE ON THE 5TH This where Woods' pulled tee shot ended up on the 5th. Great par save after getting this into the front-left bunker. ???????? #TheGenesisInv pic.twitter.com/nKu325Wb5mFebruary 16, 2023 See more
WOODS' DRIVE ON 3 This was the 300+ yard carry, 180mph ball speed tee shot on 3 from earlier... ????????????pic.twitter.com/kqrbNfl00eFebruary 16, 2023 See more
SHORT LEFT ON SIX Woods' tee shot on the iconic par-3 sixth comes up just short, left. Should be fine but will test the short game skills again.
WHAT A PAR Woods cleans up on 5 and that's a very nice save. Missed the fairway left, missed the green short and gets it up-and-down from the sand. Level thru 5.
BUNKER SHOT WAS GREAT From 30-40 yards, the 'hardest shot in golf', Woods picks it beautifully and it eventually nestles to within 5ft. Tricky little par putt coming up and boy would it be nice to see it go in.
THE LIE WAS BAD Ball was basically waist-high, not really the kind of shot you want to see Tiger hitting with his injuries. Gets it into the front-left bunker.
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IT'S LEFT Woods goes for a stinger draw and he pulls it down the left. Looks to have gone down a hill slightly so could be tricky - maybe not a birdie chance.
BIRDIE CHANCE COMING AT 5 MAYBE? Beautiful dogleg-left par 4 measuring just 416 so Tiger will be coming in with a wedge most likely. Let's see where his tee shot ends up...
TIGER BOGEY His par putt at 4 is bang on line but comes up just shy. Back to even. Bit of rust shown there.
CHIP ISN'T GREAT Woods comes up at least 10ft short I reckon. Not the best. Going to leave a lot of work to clean up for par.
TIGER WOODS WHAT'S IN THE BAG? Click the link above or the image below if you're wondering what Tiger is gaming at the moment. A full bag of TaylorMades barring his iconic Scotty Cameron. Bridgestone ball. (Image credit: Getty Images)
FROM 231... Woods just misses the green to the right but no trouble at all with the pin left and plenty of green to work with. Looked a very nice swing with a long iron. All good.
TOUGH PAR 3 4TH HOLE NOW 231 yards into wind after a good 5-10 minute wait. Play is going to be fairly slow by the looks of it and at least a 5-hour round.
WOODS' BIRDIE LOOK AT 3 He leaves his downhill right-to-lefter just short, perfect with the line but one or two rolls short. Tap in par. Still one-under.
WOODS' WEDGE INTO THE THIRD After 331 off the tee, Tiger's wedge from 112 is pretty poor. Comes up a good 30ft short.
HUGE GALLERIES AT RIVIERA Unsurprisingly, everyone and their dog are out watching Tiger, Rory and JT. Check out the scenes on the 1st tee: (Image credit: Getty Images)
WOODS PIPES IT DOWN 3 That was a much better swing from Tiger. He munches one 302 yards through the air and finds his first fairway of the day. Will have a mere flick of a wedge into the 3rd. Elsewhere, Max Homa finishes up with a 64 to lead at seven-under-par.
PAR ON 2 Dead centre. One-under thru 2.
TRICKY PAR PUTT COMING UP From 41ft Tiger gives it a good go up the hill but runs it by around 4-5ft to leave himself a nasty downhill left-to-righter to save his par.
WOODS GIR ON 2 From 192, he pushes it out right a bit but the contours help it back onto the green, just about. Probably around 30-40ft for birdie.
WOODS' BIRDIE PUTT ON 1 Never in doubt. Don’t look now … but Tiger Woods is on pace to shoot 72 under par. ???? pic.twitter.com/zPUjMvhYmgFebruary 16, 2023 See more
HOLE 2 McIlroy goes a bit left, JT straight down the middle and Tiger hits a bit of a pully-cut down the left. Only a yard or so off the fairway, should be no bother.
BIRDIE FOR TIGER Very easy 4 for the 15-time Major winner. One-under thru one. McIlroy and Thomas also birdie the 1st.
GOOD BIRDIE LOOK FOR TIGER Woods hits a gorgeous little pitch and run, and he'll have some 4ft for birdie at the 1st. Very nice.
MCILROY WITH A BEAUTY From 194, Rory hits a high, towering iron shot into the 1st and will have a very good look at eagle from around 15ft past the hole. Probably a 3 wood - 7 iron into the 1st here, easy birdie hole for the world's best.
WOODS' SECOND SHOT From 222 yards away out of the rough, he muscles a long/mid-ish iron up to somewhere near the front of the green. Should have a simple pitch shot to leave a good look at birdie.
TIGER'S FIRST SHOT IN COMPETITION OF 2023 Tiger Woods' first shot in competition of 2023 pic.twitter.com/fuX8SsqjIYFebruary 16, 2023 See more
FIRST PGA TOUR (REGULAR EVENT) SHOT IN 844 DAYS! Cool stat from the PGA Tour... Tiger Wood's opening tee shot in the first round of the 2023 Genesis Invitational marks 844 days since his last competitive round in a non-major (October 25, 2020 / ZOZO Championship).His most recent start on TOUR came at the 2022 Open Championship (MC).February 16, 2023 See more
SMARTPHONES... Cool scene. pic.twitter.com/flll08GgTKFebruary 16, 2023 See more
AND THEY'RE OFF McIlroy pipes a fairway wood down the left side of the fairway - looked an absolutely beautiful swing. Thomas up next... he misses the fairway with a fairway wood. Tiger hits a little fade down the right with a fairway wood and just misses the fairway.
LIMP WATCH I'll try and keep you updated with how Tiger moves today. Might have a slight limp but that's nothing out of the ordinary. Had two players reach out to say Tiger was walking with a pretty significant limp through player dining after yesterday’s pro-am. Granted, it was freezing cold, but just a reminder of how much pain he has to endure to play a simple round of golf. It makes me sad.February 16, 2023 See more
WOODS ON THE PUTTING GREEN The 15-time Major winner, with his Scotty Cameron in hand, goes through his final pre-round prep on the practice putting green.
HOVLAND'S UNIQUE LINE DOWN 15 In non-Tiger related news, check out this line Viktor Hovland takes off the 15th tee, purposely playing into the 17th fairway just like he did last year... Viktor Hovland purposely playing down the wrong hole... pic.twitter.com/X4odHi57FqFebruary 16, 2023 See more
WOODS' PRE-TOURNAMENT CONFIDENCE A post shared by Golf Monthly (@golfmonthly) (opens in new tab) A photo posted by on
WOODS' RIVIERA HISTORY Tiger famously made his debut here in 1992 aged 16, having attending this tournament (the old LA Open) as a child. As a So Cal guy, Woods has incredibly never won at Riviera Country Club. Back to where it all started in 1992 at the age of 16... pic.twitter.com/qMNKhKj4q4February 16, 2023 See more
TIGER WARMING UP Get your popcorn ready ???? pic.twitter.com/5jle7CZH9lFebruary 16, 2023 See more
GOLF MONTHLY'S ANDY WRIGHT IN LA... Tiger and Rory have arrived at the range ahead of round 1. Significantly warmer and less windy at Riviera today, great scoring conditions. TW walking a little gingerly but clipping the ball well. Despite the numbers, there’s an eerie silence as he warms up pic.twitter.com/PCIohZda7fFebruary 16, 2023 See more
30 MINS TO GO Woods is warming up on the range with just half an hour left until go time. What do we think he'll score today? My hunch says 3-or-4 over par and I'd be surprised if he makes the cut, but I really do hope I'm wrong. So good to see him back.
The Last Time We Saw Tiger (Image credit: Getty Images) The last time we saw Tiger Woods in a pro event was at The 150th Open at St Andrews in July 2022, where of course he got an incredible and emotional send off from the crowd.
Kuchar (remember him?) leads Matt Kuchar leads the way on 6-under-par from the early starters. Of the 64 on the course only 20 are under par, so conditions could be tricky.