Woods, tied for ninth, says game is coming around
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents
DUBLIN, Ohio -- Finding fairways admittedly has never been the cornerstone of Tiger Woods' game.
Of course, when you're the world's No. 1 player, you have plenty of other weapons in your arsenal to rely on when the driver refuses to cooperate.
During Thursday's first round of the Memorial Tournament, though, Woods was almost flawless off the tee. In fact, he actually was tied for the field in fairways hit.
Woods only missed the 18th fairway on Thursday, and the bogey that resulted brought the three-time champ home with a 3-under 69. He's tied for ninth -- five strokes off the pace being set by Luke Donald.
After putting his John Hancock on his scorecard, Woods told the reporters gathered outside the scoring hut that he changed the loft in his driver from 9.5 to 10 degrees.
"As my release has changed over time with Hank, I needed a little more loft to get the ball in the air, little more stem," Woods explained. "(I'm) still hitting it just as far but probably a different way."
Woods is playing in just his seventh tournament of the season after missing eight months due to surgery to reconstruct the ACL in his left knee. The erratic driver had been particularly exposed as expectations mounted in his return.
As he came to the Memorial, Woods was ranked 145th in driving accuracy, 111th in greens in regulation and 67th in putting. He was first in scoring average, though, and he has not finished lower than ninth in six stroke-play events this year.
"The swing is starting come around," Woods said. "I'm starting to feel good now. It's been a long time. I'm starting to get my power back. Everything is starting to kind of come around now."
Indeed. Woods was extremely steady on Thursday. He hit 13 of 18 greens in regulation, and, had he found a way to trim those 29 putts, Woods might have been closer to the top of the leaderboard.
"Everything felt pretty good, to some degree," he said. "My swing felt good. Even my putting stroke felt good. A couple of bad pitches here and there, but, overall, I felt like I controlled the ball well all day.
"Especially with the wind blowing like this, you have to hit it flush. I did that all day. I didn't miss any shots."
Woods, who was the big winner in Wednesday's rain-drenched Skins Game, said the course was drier than he expected. Woods won the final four Skins in his match with Jack Nicklaus, Kenny Perry and Stewart Cink when he holed his shot in the chipoff.
"I didn't think it was going to be this fast," Woods said. "The greens were really quick. Some of the putts down the hills got away from us a couple of times. You had to be aware of them."
Woods will come full circle in two weeks when he defends his U.S. Open title at Bethpage Black, where he also won the national championship in 2002.
A year ago, Woods beat Rocco Mediate in a thrilling 19-hole playoff at Torrey Pines -- then underwent the surgery two weeks later. In addition to the shredded ACL, he played with two stress fractures in his leg that week.
Woods says he doesn't have all his length and power back, but it's improving every week. Athletes who have undergone similar surgery often take years to recoup the strength and stability they've lost.
"I've seen it coming together for the last month or so," Woods said. "It's just that unfortunately it's one of those things where I would do it sporadically because it's coming. It just needs to be a little more consistent. Today I did it all day."
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