Tiger Woods' 1st Round At The Open Was A Massive Downer

Tough, tough scene out there for Tiger from the get go. Guy just didn't have the stuff today, and caught a few bad breaks along the way. All of that added up together has him carding a 6-over 78, leaving him well outside the cut after Day 1.

The day started off with Tiger stinging an iron down the 1st fairway, only to find himself in a divot. Great microcosm for the day ahead. He proceeded to chop that into the burn (that's a fancy word for "creek") and failed to get up and done after his drop to card an opening double. Yikes. Exhibit one billion where that fairway divot rule needs to be changed.

From there he had zero signs of life for nearly the rest of the front 9. He was scrambling pretty much the entire time. Gave himself virtually no realistic looks at birdie and quickly found himself +5 thru 7 to bury himself on the leaderboard. The rest of the way wasn't a whole lot better, although he did show a few flashes including 3 birdies on some scorable holes. But there was a ton of rust mixed in there too.

The guy's really not doing anything well. He's not hitting many approach shots in the right spots, he didn't hit many chips or lag putts that made his life easier, and he didn't putt all that well close to the hole either. All of that was exacerbated by tougher wind and course conditions in the afternoon than what the early guys saw. That puts him way behind the ball and only about 12 hours to rest before he's gotta go back out there and do it all again. 

Presumably he'll have some calmer conditions in the morning, but he's gotta go lowww tomorrow to have any shot of making the weekend. We're talking a 66 or better. Cut is at even par at the moment. There's not a lot to suggest that he's got that kind of number in the bag right now. Which is a damn shame. You know the guy wanted this real bad. You know how much this tournament at this venue means to the guy. 

He'll go out there tomorrow and give it his best, but odds are we're looking at a photo shoot at the Swilcan Bridge around 10 AM ET tomorrow morning, which… who knows. Might be the last time we see that with him as a player. 

Things are grim right now. So disappointing, but hell… just gotta be glad he's out there. Here's hoping he bounces back in a big way tomorrow.