Tiger Woods finishes first round at Memorial at 2-under
The last time we saw Tiger Woods, he was slinking off the course at Bethpage Black in the PGA Championship, a humiliating missed cut hanging over his head. Because, of course, the last time before that that we’d seen Woods, he was fitting on a fifth green jacket at Augusta. So which is the real Woods, the major-winning champion of yore or the major-flameout field-filler of the last few years?
We won’t know for a couple weeks how Woods will fare in his next major — that would be the U.S. Open — but his first round of golf at this weekend’s Memorial was an encouraging one for his chances. Woods played a relatively flat even-par round until the final holes of his day, where he birdied two of the last three to finish the day at -2 and five strokes off the clubhouse lead.
Woods didn’t do much of note on the day, but when you’re still as fragile on the scorecard as he is, that in itself is a bit of a victory. The 70 he shot was his lowest opening round at the Memorial since 2012 — which happens to be the last of the five times he won this tournament.
Bottom line, Woods didn’t play himself out of the tournament yet. And golf fans are still not at the point where they’re taking any success for granted from him.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.
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