Orlando (Florida): The early morning smiles and pre-event optimism were long gone by the time Tiger Woods completed his first nine holes on the opening day of the Hero World Challenge golf tournament at the Isleworth Golf and Country Club in Windermere near here on Thursday. Teeing off alongside Brisbane-born Jason Day as the sixth pairing of nine in this elite 18-strong field, Tiger was quickly in trouble, He went out of bounds with his very first shot of the tournament to set the tone for his day. By the evening, the five-time winner of this event was at the bottom of the field with a five-over par 77.
It bore out what he had said on Wednesday’s Pro-Am. “This is a hard golf course. I think it’s more interesting that we play some of the up tees this week. There are some holes that we’ve got to make a few adjustments.” Those changes will have to now wait for Friday.Recent Australian Open Jordan Speith continued his red-hot run of form to open up a one-shot lead over the rest of the field with a six-under 66. Hard on his heels was defending champion Zack Johnson, who recovered from a sloppy start to close the day on five under 67.
Matching him were countrymen Steve Stricker, who played steady golf on this challenging course, young Rickie Fowler and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson, the highest-ranked player in this field. Stricker had a bogey-free round and picked up pace on his inbound nine while Fowler built on his even par front nine with a five-under blast to climb up the leaderboard.
Bunched together at tied sixth with four-under 68s were Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell, Hideki Matsuyama of Japan and American Jimmy Walker. A further stroke adrift on three-under 69s were Matt Kuchar and Bubba Watson.
Chris Kirk (11th), Hunter Mahan and Jason Day (T-12th), Keegan Bradley and Justin Rose (T-14th) and Billy Horschel and Patrick Reed (T-16th) bring up the rear ahead of tournament host Woods.
