The first 12 holes of Tiger Woods’ season-debut round at the Waste Management Phoenix Open were a certifiable car wreck.
The last six holes, however messy, salvaged a 2-over 73 at TPC Scottsdale. It could have been a lot worse.
Woods’ opening tee shot set a foreboding mood, a blast skied so far right it almost went out of bounds. He recovered, but Woods made a bizarre decision to bump-and-run a mid-iron for his third shot. It came up well short, leading to a bogey. Repeat on the second hole, but this time from the fairway.
On the third, Woods got pin-high in two at the par 5, but misjudged his distance to a tight landing area on the green with his third, leading to a disappointing par. A hole later, he repeated the messy bump-and-run after missing the par-3 green with an 8-iron. Three putts — two that were official — later, Woods was 4 over through four holes.
The world No. 47 rallied for a birdie at the fifth that raised hopes Woods just had to shake off rust. But when Woods came up short again with his approach from the fairway at the sixth and pulled out putter rather than wedge from off the green, it was clear the chipping yips were in his head. It was clear why on the ninth, when Woods, after hitting an excellent recovery from a poor drive off an awkward lie, skulled his chip behind the green.
Then on the par-4 11th, Woods drive found its way into desert plantlife; he did well to make bogey. After a par at 12, Woods was two-thirds through his round and looking at an outside shot at 80.
Perhaps sensing he needed to make a turn toward par or risk standing no chance of making the Friday cut, Woods found something on the par-5 13th. He creamed a drive 329 yards down the middle of the fairway and stuck his approach to 7 inches for a tap-in eagle. All of a sudden, Woods had a pulse. It was short-lived. Errant drives to the right — his miss on the day — lead to disappointing pars, including on the par-5 15th.
At the infamous par-3 16th, Woods had to back off twice because of loud spectators among the huge throng of fans. Thankfully he escaped with par, but he had the worst score in his threesome with Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth.
Woods showed off his newfound power on 17, too, blasting a drive at the short-ish, 332-yard par 4 to 20 feet. The eagle bid came up just short. A routine par at the last brought the final tally to 73.
The thousands of chips Woods said pre-tournament that he hit in the off-season did him no good on Thursday. Woods complained of a lack of trust with a new wedge grind to fit his new-but-old short-game technique, but that wasn’t the problem. It was mental.
The driver was a big liability, too, although Woods’ miss is way right under Chris Como. It’s better than the snap hook he had with Sean Foley, but Woods is clearly stuck as he gets toward impact and struggles to square the face. When he does, however, as he did on Nos. 13 and 17, the power is back.
Who knows which Woods will show up on Friday. The only thing that’s clear is this is clearly a work in progress, one that Woods said earlier in the week was ahead of schedule. Perhaps so, but it’s a long way from contending and even a leap from making a cut.
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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