FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – Tiger Woods returned to competition for the first time after winning the 2019 Masters on Thursday for the opening round of the 101st PGA Championship at Bethpage Black.
The four-time PGA Championship winner was up-and-down all day on Long Island, shooting a ho-hum 2-over 72 to walk off the course T56. Meanwhile, defending champion Brooks Koepka shot a course record 7-under 63 to enter the clubhouse with a four-shot lead over Tommy Fleetwood and Luke List. The bogey-free round helped Koepka become the first player to record 63 in consecutive PGA Championships.
“It wasn’t as clean as I’d like to have it for sure,” Woods said of his round. “Didn’t get off to a very good start … And then found my way back around. Got it back under par for the day, and let a couple slip away with a couple bad putts and a couple mistakes at the end.”
Starting on the back nine, Woods began the day with a double bogey six on the par-4 10th hole, then regrouped with four straight pars before his first birdie of the day on No. 15. He closed out his first nine holes par-double bogey-par to make the turn at 3-over.
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Woods then caught fire through the first four holes on the front nine, making consecutive birdies on Nos. 1 and 2, followed by an eagle on the short par-5 fourth hole.
“I felt like I was getting back into the round,” Woods said of the eagle.
He then flipped the switch back to “off” as poor tee shots and even worse putting lead to bogeys on Nos. 5, 7 and 8, moving Woods back over par to +2.
Woods tees off at 1:49 p.m. ET Friday, once again alongside defending champion Brooks Koepka and Open champion Francesco Molinari.
