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NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pennsylvania – Tiger Woods had his worst performance since his last win more than five years ago, a 62 with birdie chances on all but two greens and one bad swing all day.
All he got at the BMW Championship was a draw Thursday with Rory McIlroy.
Woods did his share in the scorching air of Aronimink, which made this 7,267-yard course a real event. He did not touch any longer than a 9-iron in the par 4 and did not run out of green until his 14th hole. He came a few inches from that one.
& # 39; & # 39; I've had a better start than most of the season. And now, he says, stopping to smile, I'm back. It's like that. & # 39; & # 39;
It was not perfect for McIlroy either. He was at 9 under when Woods finished, only to make consecutive bogeys and finish with a birdie with two shots for a 62.
They had a lead of one shot on Xander Schauffele.
"It was one of those days when there was," said McIlroy.
McIlroy could have seen one day come that way. He finished his pro-am tour with a 27 on his last nine, then reached 9 under 14 holes. This is a 17 – under par section on 23 holes, even though only 14 of them have counted in the tournament.
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Woods generated the biggest buzz, though.
He had not managed to separate in the first run at 10 of his last 11 tournaments. This was a big exception.
Woods came back to the same putter that he used to win 13 of his 14 majors – his third different putter in as many weeks – and saw some familiar results. He opened with a 20-foot birdie putt at number 10, shot 29 in the back nine, then pitched a 15-foot birdie putt on the front row to reach 7 under 10 holes.
He did not do much more, but he had chances.
Woods was staring at the fifth par 3, the sun staring at him, and he could not immediately understand where he was going.
& # 39; & # 39; Is it long? & # 39; & # 39; He asked his younger brother. & # 39; & # 39; I thought it was perfect. & # 39; & # 39;
Everything else seemed so to him at that moment. His only boguey came in third place, by far the most difficult on the course. Woods was between the clubs, went with a soft iron and pulled him into the void. He launched at 18 feet, a good shot in a ridge and on a green that was moving away from him. The putt caught the lip.
Woods and McIlroy still had to shoot and make the putts.
The wide fairways and temperatures in the 90s allowed the ball to fly forever. Rickie Fowler started with a 65 in his first tournament since the PGA Championship and he sometimes seemed to play with Woods.
Jordan Spieth could not keep the game off the start and was not up to it before his 15th hole. He scored three birdies on the last four for a 67.
Peter Uihlein, who qualified for the third round of the FedEx Cup with birdies on his last three holes at TPC Boston last week, had a 64 to join a group including Justin Thomas, FedEx Cup champion .
McIlroy was on the second green when he looked at Woods, who had just hit the corner at 4 inches for the birdie on the seventh hole and was waiting for the green to clear the eighth par-3. The crowd was much thinner for McIlroy, but these fans saw a big show. He placed an 8-foot birdie putt on number 2, part of a run of six consecutive birdies.
When he was 9 years old and four remaining holes – the last by 5 – he started thinking about breaking 60.
Instead, he missed the fairway on his next two tee shots, took bogey pretty much to the same place Woods was on the number 8, and those hopes were gone.
"You do not have many opportunities to take a break from 60 and today, it was one of them," he said. declared. & # 39; & # 39; And I did not capitalize. I am not going to say that it is going too badly because I much prefer to shoot 62 today and win the Sunday golf tournament rather than 59 today and maybe not win.
Doug Ferguson is a national golf writer for The Associated Press.
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