TIGER BURNING BRIGHT WITH AN OPENING 66 AT FIRESTONE COUNTRY CLUB

FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH WEBSITE

By JAMES CORRIGAN at Akron, Ohio

It was not a major on a weekend; it was Firestone on a Thursday. So the 66 which hurtled Tiger Woods into contention here at WGC Bridgestone Invitational on Thursday was anything but a surprise

 
Woods has lined up here against the best the game has to offer 12 times and come out on top on seven of those occasions.

“For some reason, this course, I just see it,” Woods said, after his four-under morning at the Firestone Country Club. “It’s one of those venues.”

Seeing as the other venues happen to be Bay Hill, Doral and Torrey Pines, and he has won at all three this year, Akron could well be witnessing No 8 for Woods.

It would be his fifth victory of the campaign, would extend his lead at world No 1 and leave him with everything in 2013 except the major.

The problem for Woods, going into next week’s USPGA, would be that the majors are everything to him, but he has not won one in more than five years.

Blame the third and fourth rounds for that. He is a collective 23 over for his last 14 weekend major rounds and when one watches him operate at this level of control that stat is hard to explain.
Understandably, Woods concentrated on the positives after a round featuring six birdies and two bogeys. “I feel very good with what I’m doing with my whole swing,” he said.
The most dramatic moment came on the ninth, his last hole.
For his approach found himself in the middle of the 10th fairway. “It was a high, hammered snap hook,” Woods said with a grin. “Hey, I’m counting it as a fairway hit.”
Very soon it was a remarkable fairway hit as he flew the trees to the front of the putting surface. It was typical Woods, vintage Woods, and in no way reminded of the time here when, on the same hole, he landed his approach on the clubhouse roof.
“If I’d hit that today on to the roof, you should take my name off the bag,” Woods said.
He was in his element, both emotionally and professionally, and a quick peek up at the early first-round leaderboard informed exactly why.
Only two players were ahead of him; his countryman Webb Simpson on six under and resurgent Swede Henrik Stenson on five under. Among those on the same mark as Woods was Chris Wood.
The Bristolian is making his debut here, courtesy of his maiden European Tour win in Dubai in February. One club in particular illuminated a round of five birdies and a bogey and an inward half of 31.
Wood took only 23 putts as he emphatically left behind “my horrendous display on the greens at the Open two weeks ago”.
What effected the sudden transformation? Step forward James Braithwaite, the course manager at Wood’s local club, Long Ashton.
“I persuaded James to double-cut and roll the practice green every day to get me ready for this event and next week’s USPGA Championship,” Wood said. “I emailed all the Long Ashton members about it and thankfully not too many complained.”
Their pain was their star man‘s gain, as putts dropped in from everywhere for the 25-year-old.
“My putting coach, Phil Kenyon, came down to Long Ashton and we did a lot of work at home, so it’s nice to see my good work paying off,” Wood said.
“I had a bleak spell in the middle of the season when I played just once in 14 weeks because of a bulging disc in my back. But I’ve had my third spinal injection in as many years in mid-May and I’m still learning to manage it; but it’s great to be out here playing at this level.”
Wood puts the long-standing injury down to lifting too many weights in the gym, being 6ft 5in and “having a long back”.
Having finished fifth in the Open as an amateur in 2008, and then third the year after, Wood, ranked 71st in the world, plainly has the talent and it will be intriguing to see if he can join the English contingent at the top of the game.
One of these, Lee Westwood, suffered a frustrating time on the greens in his 71.
The golfer who finished third at the Open largely due to his form with his flat stick, missed six putts from inside 10 feet on his front nine as his long-game consented to shine.
And what made it harder to handle was that his playing partner, Simpson, was, in Westwood‘s words, “holing the world”. “He didn’t even need to line them up,” Westwood said. “At times like that you just have to chuckle.