Tiger Woods opens 2019 with solid round at Farmers Insurance Open

Tiger Woods has opened his 2019 with a reasonable opening round: a -2 that finished with a birdie on the 18th reminiscent of one of the most famous shots of his career.

This time last year, Woods was on the cusp of yet another return from injury, and we had no idea if he’d play halfway decently or flame out yet again. He did more than play halfway decently: he won a tournament, competed in two majors, and looked fully ready to challenge in 2019.

Woods’ year began at Torrey Pines, a course where he’s won nine times in his career, seven times in this event, once in a junior event, and once in the famous 2008 U.S. Open that marked his final major victory to date. It was at that tournament that Woods birdied the 18th to force a playoff with Rocco Mediate and an eventual victory.

Woods began the day with a striped drive, a beautiful tee shot that belied his usual tendency toward first-tee jitters. He bogeyed the second hole, but then birdied two more late in the front nine to get to -1 at the turn.

And then things turned a little wobbly. Woods exhibited some pinpoint control on the 11th:

And then there was this beauty on 13:

But between those, Woods bogeyed the 12th and later the 16th. Still, he came to the 18th needing a birdie to close out a perfect birdie run on the par-5s, and he got it, with a 12-foot curling roller.

Woods played Torrey Pines’ South Course on Thursday, by far the tougher of the two courses on this tournament’s rotation. The top five players on the leaderboard all played the North Course, so Friday should provide a measure of field-leveling.

Further up the leaderboard, Jon Rahm paced the field with a -10, and World No. 1 Justin Rose posted up just behind him with a -9. Most surprising: Jordan Spieth, riding a long winless streak but in search of a spark, finished Thursday with a -7, three strokes off the lead.

Woods tees it up alongside Round 1 playing partners Tony Finau and Xander Schauffele at 12:30 ET on Friday afternoon. He’s got work to do to catch the leaders, but making the weekend shouldn’t be a problem … which is not something we’ve been able to say in quite some time.

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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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