POTOMAC, Md. — He made just two birdies, and Tiger Woods had several other chances during an opening-round 70 at the Quicken Loans National on Thursday.
But while the putting issues that have plagued him of late continue to be a work in progress, Woods was at least pleased with some improvement after employing a different putter for the first time in nearly three years.
“I hit good putts; they just didn’t go in, which is fine,” said Woods, whose even-par round at TPC Potomac left him seven strokes back of leaders Andrew Landry and J.J. Spaun, in a tie for 48th place. “I don’t mind that at all. I misread two putts on the back nine, and so be it.
“But I hit a lot of good putts today on my line with the speed I wanted, so it didn’t go in, but I haven’t done that in a while, I haven’t been doing that. So that’s the positive sign, to keep doing that. Eventually they’ll start rolling in.”
Woods made the rare decision to switch putters this week, putting his Scotty Cameron aside — for now — in favor of a mallet-like model by TaylorMade that he said he began working with last week.
For the day, Woods had 29 putts — he had two very good par saves at the 10th and 11th holes after hitting wayward drives — and ranked 93rd in the field of 120 in strokes gained putting (-1.201, which means he was giving up more than a shot to the field on the greens).
The longest putt he made was the 9-footer for birdie at the 16th hole. He also made a 3-footer at the 14th — his first birdie of the day — after nearly driving the green and chipping on.
Woods had a double-bogey 6 on the sixth hole when a wayward drive led to an approach shot that ended up in a hazard. Woods had birdie putts of 10 feet at the fifth, 17 feet at the eighth, 22 feet at the ninth, 12 feet at the 12th, 6 feet at the 13th and 7 feet at the 15th. None went in.
The decision to go with the new putter came Wednesday after he worked with it again on the putting green.
“I put my putter down and I hit a few putts with it, it just didn’t feel right, wasn’t looking right,” he said of the Scotty Cameron — the one with which he won 13 majors. “So time for it to sit on the bench a little bit. I’m sure it will come back eventually, just one of those things.”
Woods hit only 7 of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens. And he has been dealing with putting woes going back to the Wells Fargo Championship in early May. Although he putted decently at the Players Championship, where he tied for 11th, Woods let a great opportunity get away at the Memorial earlier this month when great ball-striking was not rewarded.
He shot scores of 67 and 69 in the middle of the tournament where he lamented what could have been. He eventually tied for 23rd.
The 14-time major champion, who is ranked 82nd in the world and playing the tournament he hosts for the first time since 2015, has again put himself in the precarious position of worrying about the 36-hole cut. Two weeks ago, he shot rounds of 78-72 at Shinnecock at the U.S. Open, his second missed cut of the year.
This is Woods’ 11th start of 2018 after he played just twice early in 2017 before a spinal fusion surgery kept him from swinging a golf club for six months. Woods has four top-12 finishes but has finished closer than five shots to the winner just one time, at the Valspar Championship, where he missed a playoff by one stroke.
Woods has won the Quicken Loans event twice, in 2009 and 2012, but it was then played at nearby Congressional Country Club. The tournament was played at TPC Potomac last year for the first time when Woods was still recovering.
“I shot about the score I should have shot today,” he said. “I didn’t really have anything going through the middle part of the round, just hanging in there, hanging in there. Hit some poor tee shots and didn’t really give myself a chance. When I did, I made a couple of birdies, which is nice, but have to do a better job to give myself some more chances.”
Woods begins the second round at 8:20 a.m. Friday with Marc Leishman, who shot 67, and Bill Haas, who shot 72.