A player four strokes back shot 3-under. Which is his second straight 3-under round. Which are his lowest rounds in relation to par since January. Tiger Woods came back just over a month ago. He’s back now. Here are three things you should know after Thursday’s first round of the Northern Trust at TPC Boston in Norton, Mass, the first event in the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Four players lead
Woods is chasing four players at the top of the leaderboard.
Harris English, Kevin Streelman, Cameron Davis and Russell Henley each shot 7-under 64s to grab a one-shot lead over seven golfers.
Henley was four shots behind with four holes to play, then finished birdie-par-birdie-eagle – and his eagle was nearly an albatross, as his second shot ended up about 2 feet from the hole.
“It was right where I wanted to hit it,” Henley said of his shot on 18. “Trying it hit up the middle of the green. Landed on the front of the green. I think I landed it a foot on, so that was really nice. That’s a tricky hole or tricky second shot in there when you hit the fairway. And I’ve hit also a lot of bad shots on that hole, too, so it was nice to hit one to a foot and get in with a 3.”
Several are contending
Twenty-five other golfers are also in front of Woods.
Matthew Wolff, Bubba Watson, Kevin Kisner, Louis Oosthuizen, Charley Hoffman, Scott Piercy and Sebastián Muñoz each shot 65s and are a shot back of the leaders.
Munoz had the potential to go lower after starting with seven straight birdies.
“No, not really a disappointment,” Munoz said of playing the final 11 holes at 1-over. “You know, it’s golf. Sometimes you misread the putt, you miss the putt and it goes in; and sometimes you actually read the putt correctly, hit the putt perfect and it just skips to the right; and it’s just golf – you have to understand that. I felt like I got the good breaks the start and played pretty solid on the back nine and made one birdie and lipped-out a couple and misread a couple. I felt pretty good with my game and I’m just happy.”
Eight players shot 66s, and 10 players shot 67s.
Tiger Woods is also in contention
Woods’ round also could have been lower.
Woods bogeyed his fourth hole, the 13th, birdied his ninth, then was 4-under on the back nine before bogeying his final hole for a 3-under 68.
It follows a 3-under 67 at the PGA Championship two weeks ago, his second tournament since mid-February after missing time due to ailment and the PGA Tour’s three-month hiatus due to the coronavirus.
“I just felt comfortable,” Woods said. “That’s one of the weird things about golf. It’s just the way it is sometimes.”