Tiger Woods woke everyone up Thursday morning by racing into an early co-lead position with two birdies in his first four holes during Round 1 of The Honda Classic.
Starting on the back nine, Woods made the turn in 1 under, but a double-bogey on the par-5 third hole threatened to derail his round. The 14-time major champion proved his resolve by birdieing the next hole, en route to a first round even-par 70.
Fighting through stiff winds hovering around 20 mph, Woods' ball striking looked better than it had all season, as he hit 50 percent of the fairways and 55 percent of the greens.
A thing of beauty. 💯 pic.twitter.com/O1WnEYRZ4R
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 22, 2018
Justin Thomas, playing ahead of Woods, shot a 3-under 67 to finish his day one shot behind Alex Noren. Thomas, who started his first round on the back nine, birdied four consecutive holes starting with the par-5 18th. But two bogeys on his last four holes knocked him back to 3 under.
Daniel Berger and Morgan Hoffmann also shot 3-under 67s in Round 1. Hoffmann announced in December that he suffers from muscular dystrophy.
"It's obviously tough to deal with because health is probably the most important thing in my life," Hoffmann said Thursday after his round. "I'd like to think that I'm a healthy person, working out, I love eating healthy. It was tough to hear that but I think we're going to do a lot of really good things with the charity that I'm starting. Hopefully find a cure. It looks really positive going forward. Big charity event August 20 up in Jersey, so I'm really pumped about that. Just going forward, just trying to look positive.
"Always good to finish with a birdie with that taste in your mouth. I had a great day today. The wind is tough. The greens, not much grass on them and going on forward the rest of the week it's going to just get tougher. Really happy to get a solid round."
