Genesis Invitational: Tiger Woods’ late birdie rally saves opening round at Riviera

LOS ANGELES — For a while, it looked like Tiger Woods’ round was going to get away from him on Thursday.

He had a noticeable limp early on and appeared uncomfortable walking the Riviera Country Club course in his first competitive round of golf in seven months. A stretch of bogeys early on his back nine had Woods appearing like he was on the verge of letting his round completely slip away.

Then, vintage Woods appeared just in time.

Woods made three straight birdies in his final three holes to close out his opening round at the Genesis Invitational with a 2-under 69. He’s five shots back of the leaders in the final PGA Tour event of its “West Coast Swing,” but Woods’ finish reminded fans what he’s capable of and put himself back in a position to make a meaningful run at the place where his career started more than 30 years ago.

“I’m a little bit sore right now … Again, last year you saw it, I didn’t finish off the rounds right,” Woods said after his round. “Those are the things I hadn’t done and I hadn’t played a whole lot, so I was chastising myself pretty hard coming off of 12 saying, hey, we’ve got to really get this thing going. I don’t know how we’re going to do it after hitting a bad tee shot on 13, but let's just somehow figure out how to piece together something around even par, 1-under par and just happened to get three in a row coming in.”

Woods’ late birdie rally started at the par-3 16th, when he landed his tee shot just about 5 feet from the cup. That brought Woods to even par on the day, and stopped what was becoming a tough stretch of golf.

Woods then crushed his drive on the nearly 600-yard 17th and landed his second shot just off the back of the green. While his eagle chip was left way short, Woods expertly drained a 24-footer for birdie, which brought out the first real fist pump fans have seen from him in quite some time.

Just like that, Woods was back under par.

Finally in his groove, Woods repeated the push on the 18th. He landed another drive deep down the fairway and placed his approach just 7 feet from the hole.

The birdie marked his fifth of the day, and brought him to 2-under for the round.

Woods is now five shots back of leaders Max Homa and Keith Mitchell, who each opened with a 7-under 64. Jon Rahm is alone in third at 6-under.

In front of a packed crowd Thursday afternoon, Woods birdied hole No. 1, and kept pace with playing partners Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy perfectly in the opening holes.

By the fourth Woods was moving much slower. He bogeyed that par-3 after landing his drive off the back, and was noticeably limping his way through the next three holes — all of which he narrowly saved par after missing the fairway or green in regulation.

While the eighth hole went exactly his way and got him back in the red to close out the front nine, Woods' scrambling luck wore off as he made the turn. He hit the ball into the bunker twice en route to his bogey on No. 10, and then missed the fairway and his approach shot while picking up another bogey on No. 12. That got him to 1-over before Woods’ big finish.

His round aside, Woods was happiest coming off of the final green having spent nearly six hours competing again, especially alongside McIlroy and Thomas.

"It was a great round," Woods said. "The ebb and flow of needling each other, encouraging each other and telling stories. Because I hadn’t been out here so I’ve missed some of the things that have transpired on Tour, which is kind of fun.”

Thursday’s round was his 10th competitive one since his single-car crash in Southern California in 2021, and his first since the British Open last July. Despite being admittedly rusty, Woods was confident in his ability to compete at Riviera.

Woods may be several shots back of the leaders, and it wasn’t a complete round by any means, but his finish more than proved he can keep up with the rest of the field. If he can carry the momentum from Thursday’s finish into a full run on Friday, there’s no reason why Woods won’t be in contention when the weekend hits.

For now, the 47-year-old rests.

"Well, there's a lot of ice going on here," Woods said. "As soon as I get back to the hotel, it's just icing and treatment and icing and treatment, just hit repeat throughout the whole night. Get ready, warmed up tomorrow, get this big sweat going on, big lift in the morning and stay warm and get off to a good start on 10."