By Rahul Banerji
Tiger Woods overcame a three-putt start to his Tour Championship campaign to close out Thursday with a share of the lead at the FedEx Cup finale in Atlanta.
Opening with a bogey five at the East Lake Golf Club, Woods closed out with a monster 25-foot eagle putt to go atop the leaderboard alongside Rickie Fowler on five under par 65.
“It wasn’t exactly the start I was looking for,” Woods said afterwards.
He and Fowler will go out as the final pairing on day two,
Woods turned in one of the rounds of the year to enthuse a full house at East Lake and share the lead for a second time in the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Two weeks ago, he shot a 62 in the first playoff round at Aronimink in the BMW Championship.
Better show
Said the satisfied Woods post his round, “This was by far better than the 62 at Aronimink.”
“Conditions were soft there. This, it’s hard to get the ball closer. If you drive the ball in the rough, you know you can’t get the ball close. You just can’t control it.
“More than anything, I missed it all on the correct sides. Even the fairways I missed, all were on the correct sides. I had nice angles.
“The shots I missed were on the greens, all had beautiful angles. All in all, I had a lot of control today.
“The only hard part was getting my speed on the greens,” he said. “I missed every putt, blew it through the hole. I had five, six feet coming back, and once I figured out the pace of these things, it was all good.
“To be able to play golf again and to earn my way back to this level is something that I was hoping I would do at the beginning of the year, but I didn’t know. And I’ve done it.
‘Quality shots’
“I hit so many quality shots all day, whether it was tee-to-green or it was putts. I didn’t really mishit a single shot today.
“The only shot I can honestly say that I necked pretty bad was the tee shot at 17. Hit a 3-wood there, and with an iron, I probably would have shanked it. But ended up in the fairway and made par.
“I hadn’t played this tournament in five years, and some of the people said they haven’t been out here in five years,” Woods said. “That’s kind of nice that they’re coming out and supporting this event and supporting me, as well.”
Twenty players in the elite 30-man draw went par or better. It sets up the event nicely for the FedEx Cup playoffs finish.
Also read: Ryder Cup slot a fitting tribute to Tiger Woods’ tenacity
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