Tiger Woods has been back on Tour for months now with no sign of the injuries plaguing him for the best part of a decade present.
That in itself is tremendous progress. While the 14 time Major winner has finished runner up at the Valspar Championship, and fifth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, he has yet to add to his 79 PGA Tour wins.
This week at the Players Championship, in a marquee group featuring Rickie Fowler and Phil Mickelson, who both missed the cut, Woods just about made it with a -1 total, 14 shots behind leader Webb Simpson.
A case of progress yet again, but surely even the 42-year-old could not feature in the top end of the leaderboard.
However, Woods, who has been burning the edges with the flat stick all tournament, has made the most of his morning start on ‘moving day’, smashing his way through the TPC Sawgrass front nine in 30, putting him 11th at -7.
A 15 footer at the first hole was followed by another birdie on the par 5 second hole (footage via PGATour.com)
His approach to the fourth got inside ten feet of the hole, and with Woods’ renowned putting stroke finally paying dividends, the Pete Dye layout didn’t stand a chance.
Another birdie on five enabled by some superb ball striking set alarm bells ringing.
Tiger Woods is having himself quite the start at The Players Championship with 4 birdies through 5 holes. ?
?: @PGATOUR pic.twitter.com/uYD3fLBZAe
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) May 12, 2018
I gotta say, seeing Tiger Woods roll in a whole bunch of birdies is way more interesting than Webb Simpson doing it.
— Trevor Reaske (@TrevorReaske) May 12, 2018
Subsequent birdies on holes seven and nine, with no dropped shots, leaves the legendary Floridian just three shots back of the tie for second place, with the course record of 63 now in serious jeopardy if Woods can maintain his momentum over the back nine.
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