US Open: Tiger Woods wields a hot putter as he scrambles a battling 70
By Keith Jackson
Last Updated: 14/06/19 6:17am
Tiger Woods was delighted to end the first round of the US Open under par as he scrambled hard to fire a 70 at Pebble Beach.
Woods was in erratic form with his irons but his putter bailed him out a number of times, and he managed to one-putt no fewer than 11 greens to stay at one under and five strokes behind first-round leader - and playing partner - Justin Rose.
The three-time champion, whose 15-shot victory at Pebble Beach in 2000 is a record that many feel will never be beaten, did well to save par from 15 feet at the second before picking up his first birdie with a precise wedge in close at the fourth.
But a pulled tee shot to the short fifth led to a double-bogey five, although he atoned immediately with bounce-back birdies at each of the next two holes, including a perfect 22-foot putt on the seventh.
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The 43-year-old then had to grind out par after par as he continued to misfire with his irons, and he looked certain to give at least one shot back on the long 14th before he drained a superb 30-footer to escape with a par five.
Woods made a series of tricky length putts to stay at one under through to the close, and he admitted afterwards that he was "hanging in there" throughout the back nine.
"It was typical Pebble Beach where the first seven holes you can get it going, and then after that you're kind of fighting and kind of hanging on," he said.
"I kind of proved that today. I had it going early and had to fight off through the middle part of the round and hung in there with pars. So I'm very pleased to shoot under par today.
"I didn't hit my irons as crisp as I'd have liked. I tried to miss the ball in the correct spots, and a couple of times where I had wedges in my hand I was just dumping, centre of the green, move on, get my 30 or 40-footer and move on about my business and take my medicine when I was in a bad spot and just kind of grind it out.
"Granted, I made a few putts today, but they were all uphill," added Woods, who admitted he hit a "terrible" tee shot at the fifth and then compounded the error with a poor third.
"I was in between clubs," Woods said. "I wasn't committed to hit a six-iron, and I know from playing the practice rounds that I probably should hit seven because I can hit it 15 yards short of the green, and there's a little shelf there that will funnel the ball onto the front part of the green.
"And I just hit a terrible shot, but the second shot was good. But the mistake was the third shot, and I hit it above the hole. And a simple little pitch shot, if I leave it 10 feet below the hole, easy shot, move on with the bogey."
