Birdie on 16th gets Woods back to even par

As the 14 time Major victor reached for his driver on the 450 yard opening hole it seemed as though everyone in the huge crowd was holding their breath.

He opened with a bogey, not an unusual start for Woods, who won the U.S. Open here without making a par at the first hole over five rounds in 2008. Approach misses green long.

Woods struck a lovely 4 iron into the par-5, walking after it and twirling the club. Birdie putt slides just by on right.

Woods has played in the tournament three times since his 2013 victory, missing the 54-hole cut in 2014, withdrawing in 2015 because of pain in his back after playing 11 holes at 2-over-par and missing the traditional 36-hole cut in 2017. He makes a hard bunker shot look easy but the putt lips out from 5 feet. Second bogey of the round.

Playing primarily a cut off the tee, he found eight fairways. 4-iron from 252 yards finds green. He tapped in for birdie to get back to plus-1. The South Course is a major championship caliber track, while the North is more suited to the public course player that has access to the property. Again, not a great shot out of the bunker leaves him with a tough 12-footer to try and save par. He visited bunkers often, and often from fairways. Blasts to 21 feet.

“The high 6-iron on 16 was lovely – not because he hit it to a foot, but because it was the shot he was trying to hit”, LaCava told The Post. It came out like a pitching wedge.

And he came within inches of bringing the house down on the par-3 16th, dropping his tee shot just a hair away from the cup.

But he hit a ideal drive at the par-five sixth, splitting the fairway and giving the old Woods walk, picking up his tee and striding off without even bothering to watch his ball. A nice lag putt to a foot and wraps up the day with a par. “You’re thinking a cut is not supposed to go that far, and he hit that flat cut out there 30 past your driver and you’re like, All right”. Forced to lay up.

Woods was clearly rusty but after missed fairways led to early bogeys at the first and fifth, he used his power to hit two flawless shots to the heart of the 560-yard sixth to set up an easy birdie four. “So we’ll see what happens”.

After almost making an ace the par-3 16th, he said: “It was just a full six-iron”. He “kicked in” for birdie to improve to even for the round. Not bad speed on the putt but rolled past about four feet leaving some work to do on the way back. A miss on the 9-footer left him with an opening bogey.

He birdied No. 10 to reach even par and then had two straight pars before the 13th left him glum-faced.

His score may not have been eye popping, but he seemed much more positive after the round.

“I’d like to meet somebody who can swing it over 120 miles an hour with a fused back”, he said.