WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. -- Tiger Woods has been insisting for months that his game is rounding into better form. For one day, at least, he finally proved it.
Fresh off rounds of 80 and 76 at the U.S. Open two weeks ago, Woods posted seven birdies in an opening-round 4-under 66 at the Greenbrier Classic -- his lowest score in competition since March 2014, and lowest score in an opening round since September 2013.
"My feels were telling me that I wasn't that far off," he said after the round. "I was proving it to myself time and time again, away from a tournament site and on the range, that my feel in my hands and my body weren't far off. It was just the matter of getting into the rhythm and the flow of it and I've found that."
It might be just a single round, but this one was a stark contrast from Woods' performances to date.
In six previous starts this year, Woods had made the cut just three times. In 16 total rounds, he'd posted only one score in the 60s.
This one, though, almost wasn't this low.
Woods was cruising along, just a few strokes off the lead, when he ran into trouble on the sixth hole -- his 15th of the day.
He pulled his tee shot into the left rough, found the bunker with his approach, bladed his next shot, left a flop shot short of the green, then chipped on and two-putted for a double-bogey to drop to 1-under during relatively easy morning scoring conditions.
"[That] wasn't good, making a double there," he said. "I was telling [caddie] Joey [LaCava] going down 7, 'We're just playing too well to be at 1-under par.' And just trying to get back to 3. And we happen to pull off a hat trick coming home."
Woods made putts of 3, 18 and 19 feet on the final three holes for that hat trick of birdies -- the first time he's posted three consecutive birdies since The Players Championship two months ago.
In his past four rounds, Woods had posted just nine birdies combined -- while playing those 72 holes in 31-over par.
When asked whether he felt any relief after his best score in so long, Woods deferred to the leaderboard.
"Relief? No. I'm still only 2 back; I'm more worried about that," he explained, though by the time the morning wave had finished, he was 4 shots off the lead. "It's about winning golf tournaments and putting myself up there constantly. And that's why I made the changes. To put myself up there consistently."
Woods will begin his second round at 1:10 p.m. ET on Friday.
