{"id":2161,"date":"2018-07-19T17:49:01","date_gmt":"2018-07-19T17:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thebureaugh.com\/addons\/thegolferonline.com\/golfer\/?p=2161"},"modified":"2018-07-19T17:49:01","modified_gmt":"2018-07-19T17:49:01","slug":"tiger-woods-first-day-at-the-british-open-strong-early-rocky-late","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/blog\/2018\/07\/19\/tiger-woods-first-day-at-the-british-open-strong-early-rocky-late\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiger Woods’ first day at the British Open: strong early, rocky late"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s anything that\u2019s savaged Tiger Woods<\/a>\u2019 chances at majors of late, it\u2019s been his terrible opening rounds. Woods hasn\u2019t broken par in the opening round of a major in four years \u2014 or, in his terms, eight majors. He puts himself out of contention long before the weekend even approaches.<\/p>\n

Not this time, though. Woods has already said he expects to win a British Open again<\/a>, and Thursday at Carnoustie, he took a tentative step in that direction, carding an even-par 71 in steadily worsening conditions. Woods finished the day five strokes behind leader Kevin Kisner<\/a>, but given the many saves and precise putts Woods pulled off over the course of his round, the card could have looked much worse.<\/p>\n

Woods starts strong<\/h2>\n

Woods birdied his very first hole \u2014 a marked contrast from the U.S. Open, where he triple-bogeyed \u2014 and from there carded a two-under front nine that left him just three strokes off Kisner\u2019s clubhouse lead.<\/p>\n

Ah, but this is the British Open, and nothing stays calm for very long. An approaching storm kicked up wind, and with it Tiger\u2019s scores. Woods recorded three birdies against just one birdie on the back nine to end at even on the day.<\/p>\n

Tiger\u2019s best moment<\/h2>\n

Woods\u2019 finest moment may have come on the 14th hole, when he found himself plugged up against the wall of one of Carnoustie\u2019s notorious pot bunkers. He chipped the ball out of the sand with less than an inch to spare, managing to salvage a par out of what could have been a catastrophic, round-destroying hole. Another highlight: his long birdie putt on No. 11, one that brought back memories of Tiger putts of old.<\/p>\n

Woods was one of many who ended up on the wrong side of the weather draw, fighting the wind as the sun set. With rain expected in the forecast early Friday, Woods and those around him could again be fighting the elements.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt played a little on the quick side out there this afternoon,\u201d Woods said. \u201cI thought I played a pretty solid round. Unfortunately I didn\u2019t take care of both par-5s \u2026 the round could have been a little bit better.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the plus side, however, Woods didn\u2019t appear to be showing any ill effects from what his camp called a bad night\u2019s sleep, one that led to a minor panic when Woods showed up at Carnoustie with black kinesio tape on his neck<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been taped up and bandaged up [before]. You\u2019re just able to see this one,\u201d Woods said. \u201cIt\u2019s no big deal. Just gotta play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woods tees off for his second round at 5:20 a.m. Eastern, so by the time America gets up tomorrow, we ought to have a good idea of whether he\u2019ll really challenge for a win \u2026 or if he\u2019ll make the weekend.<\/p>\n

Jay Busbee\u00a0<\/a>Yahoo Sports<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s anything that\u2019s savaged Tiger Woods\u2019 chances at majors of late, it\u2019s been his terrible opening rounds. Woods hasn\u2019t broken par in the opening round of a major in four years \u2014 or, in his terms, eight majors. He puts himself out of contention long before the weekend even approaches. Not this time, though. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14,6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-competitions","8":"category-european-golf","9":"category-featured"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegolferonline.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}