Tour News

Tiger Woods shoots an opening-round 72 (1-over) at the 2018 Genesis Open

Published

8 years ago

Feb 15, 2018

After hitting just 17 fairways all week at the 2018 Farmers Insurance Open, where he finished T23, Tiger Woods switched driver shafts and added 0.75 degrees of loft in his TaylorMade M3 driver ahead of the 2018 Genesis Open this week. He went from using a Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 70TX shaft, to a Matrix TP6HDe shaft — he used a TP7HDe shaft back in 2015.

So how did the switch work out for him at Riviera CC on Thursday?

Well, he hit driver 9 times during his round of 72 strokes; four went right — one of which got lost in a tree and he had to re-tee — one went left, and four found the fairway. He hit 8-of-14 fairways in total; no Fred Funk, but an improvement. Woods’ bigger issue on Thursday, actually, was that he hit only 7 greens in regulation, leaving himself a few tricky up-and-downs. Despite hitting only 38 percent of greens, Woods managed to make 5 birdies, and he continues displaying prowess on the greens (1.784 Strokes Gained Putting, and 82 feet worth of putts made).

He also showed some flashes of old Tiger with Arnie-esque follow through.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/71E12ZSj9I

— Skratch (@Skratch) February 15, 2018

Of course, that means he missed the fairway way right, and he did go onto bogey the hole, but the shot made for some excitement on golf twitter, at least.

According to @RandallMellGC, Tiger described his round in a post-round interview: “I fought hard. I made a few simple, silly mistakes, bad shots here and there, missed on the wrong side, made a few birdies as well. 1-over’s not bad.”

Yea, that’s about right.

Tiger currently sits at T66, and six shots off the leader. Lots of golf to play, but he’ll likely be contending with the cutline come Friday afternoon. How do you think Tiger will finish this week at the 2018 Genesis Open?

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6 Comments

Bill

Feb 16, 2018 at 8:07 pm

After designing clubs for 40 + years I suggest that Tiger get a very tip stiff STEEL shaft at 43.5”. The graphite is too light and way too much distortion of the tip at impact. His strength and club head speed doesn’t take advantage of graphite. He may lose a few yards in distance but will gain much more accuracy. All his other clubs are steel so the driver now feels foreign to him. I think its worth a shot to try it.

Reply Report comment
Old Gaffer

Feb 15, 2018 at 6:05 pm

A washed-up burnt-out african-asian-euro has-been golffing legend. Time to retire and spend time with the kids during child custody.

Reply Report comment
- Getemgoose
  
  Feb 15, 2018 at 6:46 pm
  
  Wow… the epitome of a crusty old racist golfer. All the “larger holes” and “play nine” gimmicks won’t do anything, and golf won’t grow until you rid the course of these guys. “The gentleman’s game”… not unless your a good ole boy.
  
  Reply Report comment
  - iseeyou
    
    Feb 15, 2018 at 7:34 pm
    
    You sound like a failed leftist-prone journalism activist who hates all things “men”…. soooo obvious
    
    Reply Report comment
M-Herd4

Feb 15, 2018 at 3:58 pm

Playing so infrequently doesn’t seem like a good recipe for finding his game/consistency. Also, if he’s concerned with potential soreness in his feet from walking because he plays his practice rounds at home riding a cart, why doesn’t he just walk during his practice rounds too…

Reply Report comment
- Old Gaffer
  
  Feb 15, 2018 at 6:07 pm
  
  Diabetic neuropathy affecting his circulation and nerves in his tingling feet?
  
  Reply Report comment

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