Tiger Woods Electrifies with His Best Round in Years in Crucial Situation
Playing tournaments in three consecutive weeks for the first time since 2012, Tiger Woods lit up the opening round of the BMW Championship on Thursday at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, and finished atop the leaderboard.
Woods shot an 8-under 62, which is his lowest score in any round since 2013. He’s shot 61 four times before in his career, which makes this one of the five best rounds he’s ever played.
Tiger Woods finishes 8-under in the first round at the BMW Championship.
He has won the last 3 events when shooting 8-under or better in the first round.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) September 6, 2018
Starting on the back nine, Woods birdied three of his first four holes and then added an eagle on the 16th hole. He then birdied the 18th and the first hole before running into a string of pars.
He went birdie-bogey-birdie over his final three holes to enter the clubhouse with the lead. Rory McIlroy was also at 8-under with four holes to play when Woods finished.
It’s hard to pick the best shot of Woods’ day, but his second shot on the par 4 seventh hole was vintage Tiger.
110 yards to 9 INCHES 🎯@TigerWoods leads by 3. pic.twitter.com/WNBfsGur4x
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) September 6, 2018
After a 285-yard drive, Woods was 110 yards from the pin. His second shot went roughly 109.75 yards, which left an easy 9-inch putt for the birdie.
The BMW Championship is the third of four events in the FedEx Cup playoffs. Woods finished in 40th place two weeks ago at the Northern Trust and finished in 24th place last week at the Dell Technologies Championship.
The 14-time majors winner entered this week ranked 25th in the FedEx Cup standings with only the top 30 advancing to the Tour Championship in two weeks. Thus, he needed a strong opening like this in order to maintain his position and advance to the next event.
The FedEx Cup playoff system first took place in 2007, and Woods was the inaugural champion. He won again two years later and remains the only multi-time FedEx Cup champion.
Woods hasn’t won an individual tournament in the FedEx Cup playoff since 2009, when he claimed the BMW Championship. It’s just one round so far, but he’s put himself in great position to win another event, which would be his first tournament win of any kind since 2013.
Woods seemed to have a little extra pep in his step after being selected for the Ryder Cup team earlier this week. Woods will be making his first appearance, as a player, at the event since 2012 and was an at-large selection alongside Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau.
We’ll see you in Paris!🇺🇸🇺🇸@PhilMickelson @b_dechambeau @TigerWoods pic.twitter.com/SscUZHs0ah
— Ryder Cup USA (@RyderCupUSA) September 4, 2018
Woods was named vice captain of the Ryder Cup team in January. At the time he was ranked 656th in the world and had not played competitive golf in a year due to his back surgery.
“Deep down, I wanted to make the team. I really wanted to play on it,” Woods said Tuesday at a news conference. “Now I had not started playing golf really yet, but still … it was a goal.”
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