Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines Continues Friday

LA JOLLA, CA – Tiger Woods is in extreme danger of missing the cut entering Friday's second round of the $6.5 million Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course.

Woods shot a 4-over-par 76 Thursday on the South Course, tying for 133rd, in his first official round on the PGA Tour after a 17-month absence.

The field of 155 will be reduced to the low 70 plus ties at the conclusion of Friday's play. Woods is five strokes behind the cut line as second-round play begins, with 30 golfers tied for 47th at 1-under-par 71.

Woods started his round with a bogey, then had eight consecutive pars. He birdied the 10th and 11th holes to go to 1-under-par though 12 holes.

"I was in good shape with the par-5 coming up," Woods said. "If I could just get through 12, drive in the fairway, and 13 we have an iron in there, I could put together a pretty good round and it went the other way.
I hit bad tee shots and made a bad three-putt there at 13 and just laid up from the rough into the rough. I just kept compounding problems and mistakes out there."

Woods bogeyed five of his next six holes, including a double-bogey on the 15th hole. He finished the round with a birdie on 18, as did both of his playing partners, Australian Jason Day, the world's top-ranked player, and American Dustin Johnson, the 2015-16 PGA Tour Player of the Year.

Woods had his highest score to start his year as a professional. His previous high score was 73 at the 2015 Waste Management Phoenix Open.

"I was fighting out there all day," Woods said. "Didn't really hit it that good. Greens were a little tough out there with some of the putts and I had a round of which I let it slip away in the middle part of the back nine and unfortunately didn't hit very good shots."

Woods said his group played "so much slower than I'm used to."

"It just weird waiting that much," Woods said. "Not used to doing that. We were out there talking most of the day trying just to kill time."

The 41-year-old Woods had been sidelined because of a back injury since tying for 10th in the 2015 Wyndham Championship. He played in the Hero World Challenge in December, finishing 15th in the 17-man field in the non-PGA Tour event in the Bahamas.

Woods has won the tournament seven times, most recently in 2013. His most recent major championship also came at Torrey Pines, the 2008 U.S. Open.

Englishman Justin Rose holds a one-stroke lead over Canadian Adam Hadwin entering Friday's play.

Rose shot a 7-under-par 65 on the North Course, his lowest score in 23 rounds at the Farmers Insurance Open. Rose's round included six birdies, two eagles and three bogeys, his fifth round on the PGA Tour with multiple eagles.

"I guess the key to the round for me was having four eagle putts," said Rose, who is seeking his eighth PGA Tour victory and first since the 2015 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. "I hit all the par-5s in two so managed to convert two of those, so I played the par-5s six under, which I guess is the key to the round."

Rose will be playing Friday and the remainder of the tournament on the South Course, which he called "one of my favorite golf courses on tour."

"I think visually every shot feels good to me," Rose said. "Every tee shot's framed well, every green is a great green complex and I look forward to getting out there."

Since 2000, no first-round leader or co-leader has gone on to win the Farmers Insurance Open.

Day shot a 1-over-par 73 with six bogeys and five birdies. Since winning the tournament in 2015, Day has not had a sub-par round at Torrey Pines. He missed the cut last year following rounds of 72-74.

"The greens were very, very difficult," Day said. "From tee to green I hit it good, but once you got on the greens it was a very difficult task because of the bumps. It was soft, bumpy and quick, which is a very, very tough combination."

By City News Service

Photo by Keith Allison via Wikipedia, under Creative Commons