LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Tiger Woods had it going — at least a little bit — and then he gave it back at the end of his PGA Championship opening round Thursday at Valhalla.
Woods, playing in only his third tournament of the year, opened with a 1-over-par 72, but he was 1-under heading into his final two holes.
He started on the 10th tee, so Woods’ final two holes were Nos. 8 and 9, and he bogeyed both of them with a pair of three putts.
“Well, I three-whipped the last two holes,” Woods said. “Wasn’t very good. Bad speed on 8 — whipped it past the hole. And on 9, (I) hit it short, hit it off the heel of the putter and blocked the second one. So wasn’t very good on the last two holes.”
At the time of his finish, Woods was in 54th place.
The low 70 scores, including ties, make the cut to play on the weekend. So, Woods has work to do.
He made the cut at the Masters last month and set a record for most consecutive cuts made at Augusta National at 24.
But Woods, who, because of weather delays, was forced to play 23 holes on Friday of that week, finished in last place among the 60 players who made the Masters cut.
Woods, who won the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla but didn’t play the PGA in 2014, when it returned to the course, said he liked the way his body felt during the round.
“I am getting stronger for sure,” he said. “It’s just that I just don’t play a whole lot of competitive rounds. I haven’t played since the Masters. So it’s a little bit different than being at home and playing a flat Florida course.”
He said the most difficult adjustment on Thursday was just getting into “the competitive flow.”
“It took me probably three holes to get back into competitive flow again and get a feel for hitting the ball out there in competition — adrenaline, temperatures, green speeds,” he said. “These are all things that normally I adjust to very quickly, and it just took me a few holes to get into it.”
Asked if there’s a trick, even when not playing at peak form, to grinding it out and making cuts at majors, the 47-year-old Woods did his best to sound like his old self in those years when he expected to win.
“Well, you can’t win a tournament unless you make the cut,’’ he said. “I’ve been on the cut number and have won tournaments, or I’ve been ahead and leading tournaments and I’ve won tournaments. But you have to get to the weekend in order to win a golf tournament.”