Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but Tiger Woods is turning back the clock at Riviera.
Woods, making his first non-major PGA Tour start since 2020 while also pulling hosting duties this week at the Genesis Invitational, opened his third round Saturday with a solid 2-under 34 to move back under par for the week after making the cut on the number at one-over.
10 sights and sounds from Tiger Woods’ first round back
After starting on 10, Woods made the turn and had 190 yards left for a second shot out of the right rough at the par-5 1st. From there he hit by far his best shot of the tournament, if not the last three years.
Woods carved a 5-iron in toward the right hole location, just barely carried the right greenside bunker and rolled his ball right past the edge of the cup, nearly for an albatross.
The 15-time major winner made easy work of the remaining three-footer for eagle.
The heroics for the Hall-of-Famer on The Riviera Country Club’s opening hole should come as no surprise. According to stat guru Justin Ray, Woods has seven eagles on the PGA Tour since 2019 and all but two of them have come at the first hole at Riviera, including his most recent one in 2020 during the final round. It’s his sixth career eagle on No. 1, tied for the most on any one hole in his PGA Tour career.
Woods was already off to a solid round but the eagle really jump-started him, catapulting him into the top 30 on the leaderboard after beginning the day in a tie for 59th.