Tiger Woods birdied each par-5 holes on Thursday however completed at 4-over 74 in his opening spherical on the U.S. Open in Pinehurst, N.C.
Woods, 48, offset his birdies at Nos. 5 and 10 with six bogeys, together with 4 on the entrance 9 at Pinehurst No. 2.
“I didn’t hit my irons notably properly. Didn’t putt that nice,” Woods mentioned. “Drove it on the string all day. Sadly, I simply didn’t capitalise on it.”
The 15-time main winner is making his first U.S. Open look since 2020. He received the U.S. Open in 2000, 2002 and 2008.
Woods began on the again 9 and briefly shared the lead with an 11-foot birdie putt on the tenth gap. He saved par at Nos. 12 and 13 with putts from an analogous distance earlier than lacking a birdie bid on the par-4 14th.
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He missed the golf green at No. 16 and carded his first bogey after a dropped shot, then missed his second putt on the par-3 seventeenth for an additional bogey.
After making the flip at 1-over 36, Woods three-putted for bogey at No. 1 and missed quick par putts at Nos. 2 and 4.
“I feel I three-putted, what, two or thrice in the present day?” Woods mentioned. “If I clear that up, if I get a few iron photographs not as unfastened as I did, I’m proper there at even par.”
Woods arrange his birdie at No. 5 with a booming 4-iron from the centre of the golf green, however he gave the shot again at No. 8 along with his sixth bogey in an 11-hole stretch.
“It is a golf course that doesn’t hand over a complete lot of birdies,” Woods mentioned. “It provides up quite a lot of bogeys and better.
“I believed I did the one factor I wanted to do in the present day, which is drive the ball properly. I did that. I simply didn’t capitalise on any of it.”
Woods, who teed off with Will Zalatoris and Matt Fitzpatrick at 7:29 a.m. ET, hit a complete of 10 greens in regulation.
Woods is enjoying an abbreviated schedule this yr in an effort to keep away from accidents. That is his first occasion since lacking the lower on the PGA Championship 4 weeks in the past.
“I’m bodily getting higher because the yr has gone on,” he mentioned. “I simply haven’t been capable of play as a lot as a result of I don’t simply don’t wish to damage myself pre (event), then I received’t be capable of play within the main championships.”