Tiger Woods hopped on Route 66 Friday, carding eight birdies in shooting 6-under 66 as he tries to find his form with the Masters upcoming.
New day, new Tiger Woods. Or, more like the old Tiger.
Woods bounced back from shooting an opening-round 4-over 76 to card eight birdies en route to shooting 6-under 66 at the Zozo Championship at Sherwood.
Woods, who was 3-over par after his first four holes on Thursday, made birdie on four of his first six holes and tacked on another at the ninth. His only blemish on the first nine was a 3-putt bogey at the third hole from 39 feet.
One day after struggling off the tee, Woods was on the mark and fired some darts with his irons at a vulnerable Sherwood Country Club. Woods made one bogey on the back nine at No. 10 when his second shot caught a greenside bunker and he failed to get up and down. But he bounced back one hole later with a 6-foot birdie putt at 11. Woods then endured a string of pars until he blasted a fairway wood on to the front of the par-5 16th green in two and made birdie to get back into red figures for the tournament. One hole later, Woods planted his tee shot at the par 3 to six feet and poured in the birdie putt.
Woods still is a dozen strokes behind the leaders with a 36-hole aggregate of 2-under 142 and in a share of 66th place in the 77-man field.
Re-live Tiger’s hole-by-hole and shot-by-shot analysis with Tiger Tracker.
Bubba Watson shot his best round on the PGA Tour in 28 months when he posted a 63 in the second round of the Zozo Championship on Friday.
Bubba Watson is getting it going.
Watson shot his best round on the PGA Tour in 28 months when he posted a 63 in the second round of the Zozo Championship on Friday.
He did shoot a 62 to open the QBE Shootout last December but that’s not an official PGA Tour event. The last time he shot a 63 on Tour was in the second and final rounds of the 2018 Travelers, also the last time he won Tour.
More than that, Watson said he was just having fun on Friday at Sherwood Country Club when he played with Cameron Champ and Dylan Frittelli for a second day in a row.
“On 16, I made fun of them,” Watson said after his round. “They all hit woods in there and I hit 3-iron in there and made eagle. So I said, ‘Hey, this old guy’s still got it, so just remember that.’ So we had a fun day and it was good golf for everybody.”
Watson hit all 18 greens on Friday, leading to eight birdies and an eagle. His only bogey came on the 9th green when he three-putted. Maybe his new driver is helping, too. The two-time Masters champion put a customized pink and black G425 LST driver in his bag last week Shadow Creek, with the word âBUBBAâ in pink across the crown, and he’s using it again at Sherwood.
But mostly, he’s just having fun.
“When I’m joking around with guys and shooting the breeze, it makes it easier for me, just makes me just not really think about much and just poking fun at people and just having a blast out there,” Watson said. “You know, a lot of times we get stiff out there, especially if â there’s certain guys that just don’t talk much, and so when you have guys that you can joke around with and shoot the breeze with, it loosens me up.”
Watson, who’s from Florida and played at the University of Georgia, seems to really get a charge out of being in Southern California.
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“When I come to L.A. I just love it, hanging out with all the guys I know from here, people from Warner Brothers, some celebrities here and there, and then the all-popular Judah Smith and Ryan Good and Jason Kennedy. Judah Smith started a church here so I was part of that a little bit. So we had Bible study the other day.
“It’s just shooting the breeze with guys that I really look up to and learn from when it comes from the mental side of a so-called being a celebrity and how to deal with life that way. It just makes L.A. . … brings the best out in me because I got to shoot the breeze with guys that I look up to and want to learn from.”
Follow Tiger Woods’ Friday round at the Zozo Championship with shot-by-shot updates from Sherwood Country Club.
Are you ready for some live, shot-by-shot analysis of the one, the only Tiger Woods? We’ve got you covered.
Tiger Woods returned to action on Thursday, but it wasn’t pretty. He shot 4-over 76, his highest score in 49 trips around Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California, near Los Angeles.
The 82-time winner on the PGA Tour is competing at the Zozo Championship at Sherwood in his first event since missing the cut at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot last month.
Woods has his work cut out for him if he plans on defending his 2019 title â his most recent triumph and the one that tied him with Sam Snead for most career victories won on Tour.
Woods tees off for his second round at 2:51 p.m. ET from the 1st tee alongside Matthew Wolff and Xander Schauffele.
Keep up with Woods’ second round shot-by-shot below.
Is the five-time Augusta National champ looking for more distance, as potentially cooler air prevents the ball from flying as far as normal?
Tiger Woods made a subtle equipment change this week at Sherwood Country Club before starting his defense of the Zozo Championship, and the swap probably was made with an eye toward the Masters.
Woods had been playing a TaylorMade M5 3-wood since early 2019, but this week that club was replaced with a TaylorMade SIM 3-wood. The club’s stated loft is 15 degrees, and it is fitted with a 70-gram Mitsubishi Diamana D+ TX shaft. However, the actual loft is 14 degrees. The club has a finished length of 42.5 inches with a swing weight of D4. Tiger’s old 3-wood had 15 degrees of loft and was fitted with the same shaft.
While many pros will pull a 5-wood out of the bag and go with a 2-iron or a driving iron when they play on firm courses or in windy conditions, 3-wood changes are rare. Three-woods are notoriously hard for pros to swap out because the clubs pull double duty, hitting the ball to a precise distance from both the the tee and off the fairway. When elite players find a 3-wood that does the job well, they tend to stick with it.
TaylorMade SIM fairway woods (TaylorMade)
Woods’ decision to change into a TaylorMade SIM 3-wood, a club released in January, probably has more to do with getting used to the club in competition before the Masters than needing it at Sherwood Country Club this week.
The Masters starts Nov. 12, and the weather is expected to be colder at Augusta National than is typical for April. According to Titleist, a golf ball will fly 1.5 percent less far on a 50-degree day than it will when the air temperature is 70 degrees because the atmosphere is thicker. It also will fly higher.
According to Joe LaCava, Tiger Woods’ caddie, Woods hits his TaylorMade M5 3-wood about 265 yards in the air. A 1.5 percent decrease in carry distance would drop that to 261, but that assumes Woods maintains the same speed in his swing. In colder weather, most golfers have trouble staying loose and swing slower.
Weight savings from the carbon-fiber crown and titanium face allowed TaylorMade to add an 80-gram sole plate to the SIM fairway woods. (TaylorMade)
The TaylorMade SIM fairway woods have titanium faces, like a driver, so they are lighter and flex more efficiently for increased ball speed. They also have a heavy soleplate that lowers the center of gravity and creates a higher launch angle. Combine all that with a loft that is 1-degree stronger, and in colder weather,Tiger may not lose any distance with his new 3-wood at Augusta National in November.
Jordan Spieth’s father, Shawn, is on the bag at the Zozo Championship at Sherwood Country Club.
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. â Jordan Spieth had a familiar face carrying his bag in Thursdayâs first round of the Zozo Championship at Sherwood.
Shawn Spieth, his father.
The elder Spieth was the third caddie Spieth has had on his bag in less than a week. Last week, Spiethâs longtime caddie, Michael Greller, left the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek in North Las Vegas before the third round after getting word his mother, Jane, passed away earlier that morning.
Spieth turned to Preston Valder, an associate of Patrick Cantlayâs, to carry the bag the rest of the tournament. This week, he turned to his father, who previously caddied for his son in the 2019 World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship after Grellerâs father, John, passed away that week.
âTo lose both your parents in a year and a half, like I told (Greller), I have no way of relating to it, but I can only imagine,â Spieth said. âI was with him Saturday morning after he found out the news and I never have really seen him like that.
âWe’ve been through a lot of stuff together.
âI think it’s a really tough situation for him right now, and as much time as he needs (he gets). It’s like he was wanting to kind of come back. I’m like, âDude, it’s your bag whenever you want it, just do what you need to do for the more important things in life right now.ââ
Greller, a former grade-school math teacher, has teamed with Spieth for three major championships and 14 professional wins around the world.
Shawn Spieth, left, caddies for his son Jordan Spieth, center, during the first round of the Zozo Championship golf tournament Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020, in Thousand Oaks, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Shawn Spieth was on the bag when his son tied for 54th in Mexico. And Spieth shot 2-under-par 70 Thursday to stand six shots back of leader Sebastian Munoz.
âSo we get a special time with me and my dad this week,â Spieth said. âThen we’ll gear up for Augusta and get ready to have Mikey back.â
Spieth was all smiles after the round talking about having his father on the bag. And he even laughed at one moment when his father was out of bounds, so to speak, in the player-caddie relationship.
âHe did the old ‘No, no,’ on our fourth hole, on 13,â Spieth said. âI’m stepping into the ball and he goes, âJust don’t overdo it.â I step back, step back in. I’m like, âDad, there’s only really like one or two things you just can’t do and that’s just don’t say not to hit it somewhere while I’m stepping into the shot.
âHe goes, âWell, you know, you did it on No. 11, so I didn’t want you to do it on 13.â But yeah, it was funny. I know he’s enjoying it and it’s a tough walk. The other time he caddied for me was Mexico City, which was at 8,000 feet, so I’m not exactly picking the easiest ones for him.â
It’s on to Day 2 at Sherwood Country Club for the second round of the 2020 Zozo Championship. Check out tee times and TV info here.
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Tiger Woods is making his first appearance on the PGA Tour since missing the cut at the U.S. Open last month and the rust showed during his opening-round 76 at the Zozo Championship. It’s his worst score ever at Sherwood Country Club.
Woods walked off the course in 75th place out of 77 golfers. The tournament started with 78 but Gary Woodland played just seven holes before withdrawing with a back injury.
Sebastian Munoz had two eagles in his round, which was a huge part of his first-round 8-under 64. He holed out from 168 yards on the par-4 7th hole, then holed out from 50 yards on the par-5 16th hole.
From tee times to TV info, hereâs everything you need to know for the second round on Friday.
Tee times
Times listed are ET.
1st tee
Tee time
Players
12:50 p.m.
Abraham Ancer, Tom Hoge, Rikuya Hoshino
1:01 p.m.
Cameron Champ, Dylan Frittelli, Bubba Watson
1:12 p.m.
Nick Taylor, Kevin Na, Adam Long
1:23 p.m.
Jim Herman, Jason Day, Tommy Fleetwood
1:34 p.m.
Byeong Hun An, Mark Hubbard, Shaun Norris
1:45 p.m.
Kevin Streelman, Joel Dahmen, Gunn Charoenkul
1:56 p.m.
Brian Harman, Chan Kim, Naoki Sekito
2:07 p.m.
Daniel Berger, Patrick Cantlay, Matt Kuchar
2:18 p.m.
Cameron Smith, Brendon Todd, Joaquin Niemann
2:29 p.m.
Kevin Kisner, Jordan Spieth, Shugo Imahira
2:40 p.m.
Jon Rahm, Justin Rose, Hideki Matsuyama
2:51 p.m.
Tiger Woods, Matthew Wolff, Xander Schauffele
3:02 p.m.
Alex Noren, Scottie Scheffler, Ryo Ishikawa
10th tee
Tee time
Players
12:50 p.m.
Russell Henley, Harris English, Jazz Janewattananond
1:01 p.m.
Michael Thompson, Ryan Palmer, Matthew Fitzpatrick
1:12 p.m.
Tyrrell Hatton, Viktor Hovland, Satoshi Kodaira
1:23 p.m.
Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed
1:34 p.m.
Webb Simpson, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson
1:45 p.m.
Adam Hadwin, Talor Gooch, Mikumu Horikawa
1:56 p.m.
Mackenzie Hughes, Carlos Ortiz, Takumi Kanaya
2:07 p.m.
Jason Kokrak, Sungjae Im, Sebastian Munoz
2:18 p.m.
Tyler Duncan, Corey Conners, Tony Finau
2:29 p.m.
Marc Leishman, Lanto Griffin, Rickie Fowler
2:40 p.m.
Richy Werenski, Paul Casey, Billy Horschel
2:51 p.m.
Andrew Landry, Brendan Steele
3:02 p.m.
Danny Lee, Harry Higgs, Brad Kennedy
TV, streaming information
Times listed are ET.
Friday, Oct. 23
TV
PGA Tour Live on NBC Sports Gold: 12:45-5 p.m. Featured groups:
Collin Morikawa, Patrick Reed, Justin Thomas (1:23 p.m.)
Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, Webb Simpson (1:34 p.m.)
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Tiger Woods looked rusty in the first round of Zozo Championship, his first start since missing the cut at the U.S. Open.
Tiger Woods looked at little rusty Thursday at Sherwood Country Club.
Woods, who last competed at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot where he missed the cut, finished the first round of the Zozo Championship 4-over 76, walking off the course 75th in the 77-player field. Gary Woodland withdrew during the first round.
One of Woods’ most notable struggles in his first start in over a month was finding fairways. Throughout the round, the reigning Zozo champion often veered to the right rough and in one penalty area with his tee shots.
Beginning his day on the 10th hole, Woods did something heâs never done before on his first nine: he made bogey or worse on three par 5s in one round. He bogeyed Nos. 11 and 16 and double-bogeyed No. 13. He had one birdie on the back nine on the par-4 14th after making a 87-foot birdie putt. Woods made the turn at 3 over.
On the front nine, Woods seems to shake off some of the rust. Woods carded a birdie on the par-5 second hole, ending around his par-5 bogey streak and followed it with a bogey on 4. Woods had a missed birdie opportunities on the par-5 fifth and par-4 sixth when his birdie putt missed the hole by five inches on each hole. Woods added on a bogey on No. 8 in which his putt for par stopped on the lip of the cup to finish the front nine 1 over.
Woods tees off his second round Friday at 2:51 p.m. ET alongside Matthew Wolff and Xander Schauffele from the first tee.
Follow Tiger Woods’ Thursday round at the Zozo Championship with shot-by-shot updates from Sherwood Country Club.
Tiger Woods is back in action.
The 82-time winner on the PGA Tour competes in his first event since missing the cut at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot last month at the Zozo Championship at Sherwood.
Woods looks to defend his 2019 title â victory No. 82 and the one that tied him with Sam Snead for most titles won on Tour â except this year, the event is being played at Sherwood Country Club instead of in Japan due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Woods tees off for his first round at 1:45 p.m. ET from the 10th tee alongside Matthew Wolff and Xander Schauffele.
Keep up with Woods’ first round shot-by-shot below.
With his first shot of the day, the defending champion drives the ball 241 yards in the left-center fairway. From 127 yards out, Woods’ second shot finds the green, but the ball isn’t as close to the hole as he’d like. He’d have to make a 55-footer for birdie here. Tiger’s first putt is pretty accurate considering the elevation on the green. He sets himself up for a 3-foot, 6-inch putt. It’s good.
TIGER ON THE DAY: even par thru 1 (even par overall)
Hole 11 – Par 5
This one didn’t go exactly to plan. Woods’ drive on 11 travels 292 yards to the right of the fairway somewhere under the trees.
But that doesnât mean heâs not thinking about the Masters.
How could he not be thinking about the Masters? For one thing, heâs a green jacket away from completing the career Grand Slam. For another, 11 of the 16 questions he took in Wednesdayâs zoom press conference ahead of the start of the Zozo Championship at Sherwood dealt with the Masters.
âYou guys are going to write about Augusta because that’s what people want to hear about, right? You’re catering to what people want to read,â McIlroy said.
The world No. 5 wasnât annoyed at all the Masters questions. He perked up when talking about trips heâs taken there with his father when the Masters wasnât being played, especially his journeys down into the clubâs famous wine cellar. He talked about little changes here and there to the course all the players see from year to year. About staying in one of the famous white cabins.
But all of his attention when he puts the peg into the ground for the first time in the first round will be on the task at hand.
âI’m 100Â percent focused this week on the Zozo Championship at Sherwood and there’s no part of my mind that will be on Augusta, Georgia, when I’m out there playing those 72 holes this week,â McIlroy said. âIt’s four rounds, it’s an opportunity to win a PGA Tour event. It’s a great opportunity to try to get a win and get into contention and I think that would be a big step. I haven’t really been in contention much since coming back from the lockdown. If I could get into contention this week and have a chance to win, I think that would be great for just overall confidence in play and all that.â
McIlroy was the hottest player on the planet before the golf world shut down in March for 13 weeks due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. In 11 starts leading into the shutdown, McIlroy had two wins and eight other top-10s and was the No. 1 player in the official world rankings.
But since the PGA Tour returned in June, he has just two top-10s in 11 starts. Last week, he tied for 21st in the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas.
âI’ve been working quite a bit on some technical stuff in my swing the last few weeks, trying to get my right arm working a little better in the backswing, get it supporting the club a little more, keeping the club a little more out in front of me,â he said. âI made some decent progress last week apart from the last five holes on Sunday and that’s really been it.
âI’ve been tinkering or messing around with trying to get a little more speed. I used it a little bit last week and I led in driving distance and I was No. 1 in strokes gained off the tee. If anything, my iron play wasn’t that good, so just trying to tidy that up. But other aspects of my game, I thought I putted pretty well, short game was decent.â
Other than working on hitting âhigh bombs, as Phil (Mickelson) would say,â McIlroy said, he isnât utilizing his practice time on honing in shots heâd like to have for the Masters. And Mickelson told McIlroy a few years back that if your short game is sharp at Augusta National, you can be more aggressive with approach shots, so McIlroy will concentrate on that leading up to the Masters.
But this week is all about the Zozo.
âI’ve always enjoyed Sherwood,â said McIlroy, who has played here since 2010, when he finished fourth in what is now known as the Hero World Challenge. âIt’s a great golf course, it’s a great venue for a golf tournament. Whenever this tournament was announced that it would be coming here instead of going back to Japan, I was excited. I think a lot of the guys were looking forward to playing it.
âIt’s been nice to get out on the golf course the last few days and refresh my memory a little bit of the place. It hasn’t really changed much. The greens are a little different, a little bigger, maybe a little less severe than they were in the past, but yeah, it’s great to be here. Nice that we’re able to play this week.â
Wolff will be watching Woods, attempting to glean something of value from one of the sport’s great champions.
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Itâs been more than a few years since Matthew Wolff was a 14-year-old Westlake High sophomore in the gallery at Sherwood Country Club, rooting for Tiger Woods to prevail in a playoff at the Hero World Challenge.
The 21-year-old PGA Tour phenom will play alongside the 15-time major champion for the first time this week, fittingly at a course they both know so well.
Wolff and Woods will be joined by Xander Schauffele in a threesome Thursday and Friday during the first two rounds of the $8 million Zozo Championship at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks.
âI think it’s amazing that they’re having a PGA Tour event here again,â said Wolff on Wednesday, during a video call with media covering the event in Thousand Oaks.
âI’m just excited to not only play a course that I feel super comfortable on, but this is my first time playing with Tiger as well, so that’s going to be a lot of fun and I’m sure he knows the course very well.â
Woods, who won the tournament last year in Japan, hosted his World Challenge event at Sherwood from 2000 to 2013.
Wolff was born in Simi Valley and grew up in nearby Agoura Hills.
He first played Sherwood as a budding teenage golfer and has since played the course âhundreds and hundreds of times,â finding time for rounds on visits home from college at Oklahoma State or since he turned pro last year.
âEvery single time I come back and visit family here,â Wolff said.
The tournament was officially shifted from Japan last month due to COVID-19 concerns, as part of a reconfigured West Coast swing ahead of the rescheduled Masters.
Which is why the tournament will be held this week without fans, keeping local golf fans from what would have been a memorable attraction.
âI think playing with him,â Wolff said of Woods, âwe would have drawn a really large crowd.â
Even without a gallery, Wolff is expecting to feel the love, at least from friends and family with country club connections.
âI know multiple, multiple people that live on the course here and have houses here, so I’m sure my family and my friends will probably be hopping house to house and try to catch me on certain holes and stuff,â Wolff said. âEven though there’s not going to be fans allowed, I’m sure they’ll try to find a way to come and watch me as much as they can.â
Matthew Wolff reacts on the 14th green during the third round of the 120th U.S. Open Championship on September 19, 2020, at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York. (Photo: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Wolff will be watching Woods, attempting to glean something of value from one of the sport’s great champions.
âI just think how he kind of handles himself, the shots that he hits and the decisions that he makes,â Wolff said. âI think itâs going to be really cool ⌠just to see greatness right in front of you is always something really special.”
The former national champion at Oklahoma State has wasted little time making himself comfortable on the PGA Tour, already amassing $5.6 million in earnings in 15 months despite the sportâs pandemic pause.
After finishing 35th in the FedEx Cup rankings as a rookie, Wolff has finished second in two of three starts on the PGA Tour this season.
He finished runner-up to Bryson DeChambeau at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot last month and tied for second at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas earlier this month.
âI gave myself two good opportunities to win the golf tournament and guess I just kind of got outplayed at the very end,â Wolff said.
After struggling last week at the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek, where he finished 73rd at 11-over par, Wolff has been hard at work this week with swing coach George Gankas.
âMy alignment and my setup kind of got off and from there it was just a downhill spiral,â Wolff said. âLucky for me, my coach, George, he lives 10 minutes away from here as well, so we worked really hard the first couple days and I feel like my game’s in a pretty good spot.
âGolf is crazy like that. You feel like you can be on top of the world and can’t miss a shot for two months and then very next day you come out and feel like you’re lost. You know, last week was just one of those weeks.â
A unique tour stop back home in Ventura County has been a welcome change for Wolff.
âI think seeing some family at the beginning of the week was really helpful to kind of, you know, just settle everything down,â Wolff said. âBut, also at the same time, they understand that even though I’m back home and I need to spend time with them, I also need to prepare for this tournament.
âI’m still working. So they’re very good at making sure that I can balance both of those things and not asking too much of me, you know, off the golf course.â
He knows even a home-course advantage will be useless if heâs not on his game.
âI’m very comfortable with the golf course and I feel like even though I am comfortable, I still need to prepare,â Wolff said. âThe rough is the longest I’ve seen it and I’ve played here hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times.
â(Itâs) definitely a little different because I feel like most of the par 5s, if you hit it in the rough on a normal day, you can get to them still. But here, you’re going to just kind of have to hit it back in the fairway. It’s going to play a little different, but like I said, the lines off the tees, the comfort level that I have out here is I think a huge advantage.â
Joe Curley covers sports for The Star. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @vcsjoecurley.
