GULLANE: World number one Tiger Woods said yesterday he was very happy with a two under 69 in the first round of the British Open, especially given the lightning quick greens at sun-baked Muirfield.
“It was tough. The golf course progressively got more dried out and more difficult as we played. And I’m very pleased to shoot anything even par or better,” he told journalists after finishing tied for ninth and three behind overnight leader Zach Johnson.
Woods was forced to really grind out his round as the greens grew more and more perilous in the afternoon sun.
“Well, the golf course just kept drying out. And it was so hard to get the ball close, even lag putt and try to get the ball the right speed. It was very difficult,” he said.
Woods expressed some sympathy with players like England’s Ian Poulter and American Phil Mickelson who were quite disparaging about the difficulty of holding the balls on the greens.
“Well, I could see how guys were complaining about it,” he said. “Some of these putts today, I mean, I putted the ball off the green today. And it really wasn’t that bad a putt. Anything that goes four feet by, it’s gone. It was tough.”
Asked if it was unfair as some fellow competitors had suggested, he replied: “You could see how guys could feel that way. It got so fast and so dry that, as I said, it was hard to get the ball close and even lag-putt the ball at the right speed.” It was a gritty performance by Woods who dug deep to save par or escape with just a bogey on a number of holes.
“There wasn’t a lot of talking out there today because we’re trying to grind it out on that golf course, and it’s one of those courses where it just got so difficult,” he said.
Woods said it would be interesting to see if the organisers, the R&A, put some water on the greens before today.
Teeing off in the morning he could have the better of the conditions if they do.” Woods didn’t seem bothered by the elbow injury that hurt his chances at last month’s US Open at Merion and reckoned he had made the right decision to rest it in the lead-up to the Open.
“Elbow held up great. That’s one of the reasons I took the break to make sure that was good. I knew the ground was going to be hard over here. There’s potential for having some long rough. And that little time off helped,” he said. REUTERS
