By Rahul Banerji
Lack of tournament play showed in event host Tiger Woods’ golf as Brian Harman and Tony Finau shared the day one lead at the Hero World Challenge on Thursday.
The Open winner Harman made a strong debut at Albany in an early start, firing a 5 under par 67 that was later matched by fellow-American Finau. The two were one shot ahead of 2014 winner Jordan Speith.
Playing for the first time since the end of the second round of the Augusta National in April, Tiger later admitted to ‘soreness’ all over after his 3-over 75.
For the first 14 holes, he was at 1-under before the rust hit and he would finish on 3 over 75 at the Albany Golf Course.
Yet, he seemed to have got a few things to work too.
“I’m sore, there’s no doubt about that.” Tiger said later. “We’ve got some work to do tonight. Hopefully hit some better shots. And now I know mentally what I need to do better.
“I think that’s something that physically I knew I was going to be OK. Mentally, I was really rusty and made a lot of errors in the mind that normally I don’t make.
Solid hitting
“I didn’t have my feels,” the five-time winner of the event said. “Conditions were tough early. I did not finish off the round like I needed to. Kind of went sideways at the end.
“I wanted to compete, I wanted to play. I felt like I was ready to compete and play. I hit it solid most of the day. As I said, I just didn’t mentally do the things I normally would do and need to do.”
Harman may not have found many greens, but he scrambled well, carding six birdies against a lone dropped shot on the last hole.
“It’s a really tough golf course,” the left-hander said. “The wind was blowing. I got out of position a few times, made some really nice up-and-downs.
“I’m going to go hit a few, see if I can tighten my iron game up a little bit. Putted nicely other than the bogey on the last, pretty good.”
On his scrambling, he said, “Last time I played the RSM, my short game wasn’t very good, so I worked a little bit on it in the next couple of weeks. Glad that I chipped a couple close.”
Late surge
Finau birdies the first and the third holes, but gave up one on the tenth. Then in a span of five holes, he picked four shots to surge to the top.
“That was a nice start,” said Finau. “I made some crucial par saves, I would say. I made a lot of six, seven footers whether it was after a chip or a bad first putt. That just kind of kept the momentum throughout the round.”
Spieth rode a roller-coaster with two eagles, six birdies, four bogeys and a double bogey. His final tally of 4-under put him one behind Harman and Finau.
Tiger was going well, but each of his birdies was followed immediately by a bogey. That happened three times but a fourth birdie on 14 had him at 1-under for the fourth time.
That lasted till the 15 when a wayward left tee shot landed under a large clump of bushes. He stabbed at it and moved it only a foot and lost a shot. He even toyed with the idea of a left-handed attempt but then punched it back into the fairway.
Bad call
The third shot, a 3-wood, came short and the pitch left him a 12-foot bogey putt, which he missed for the double bogey taking him from one-under to 1-over.
On 16 he missed the green in regulation and missed a 20-footer for par and on the Par-3 17th, he found the green, but was 50-plus feet away for. He went six feet past and missed the comeback putt.
Tiger then closed with a birdie try from 25 feet and then tapped for par
Summing up the round, the 15-time major winner said, “I got off to a decent start, didn’t play the par 5s particularly well all day. I had really a lack of commitment through most of the middle part of my round and finishing.”
Playing partner and good friend Justin Thomas rallied from 3-over after four holes to finish 2-under and in a share of eighth alongside England’s Matt Fitzpatrick.
Mixed bag
Describing his round later, Speith said, “It was an electric factory out there, for sure. Some rusty putting, a couple of toe balls and then a lot of really, really good stuff.
“So all in all I would have probably signed for 4 under when I was warming up today, I just didn’t think I’d get there this way.” He had just five pars in 18 holes.
Cameron Young, Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa and Max Homa brought in 3-under 69s for tied fourth, while two-time defending champion Viktor Hovland returned his first 70-plus card at the event for a 73 and 16th place.
The Norwegian has won both his previous starts at Albany but now has a mountain to climb over the remaining 54 holes.
Scores and round 2 pairings
Wyndham Clark (76) and Will Zalatoris (81)
Rickie Fowler (74) and Tiger Woods (75)
Justin Rose (72) and Viktor Hovland (73)
Sepp Straka (72) and Keegan Bradley (72)
Sam Burns (71) and Jason Day (71)
Justin Thomas (70) and Lucas Glover (71)
Max Homa (69) and Matt Fitzpatrick (70)
Scottie Scheffler (69) and Collin Morikawa (69)
Jordan Spieth (68) and Cameron Young (69)
Brian Harman (67) and Tony Finau (67)
Also read: Tiger to open at Hero World Challenge alongside Justin Thomas
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