The last time we saw Tiger Woods was almost a month ago at The Players Championship where he was duck-hooking drives and playing a form of golf he once referred to as “military golf”—left, right, left right, etc.
Having played the Quail Hollow Championship the week before, The Players Championship marked the first time Woods had attended back-to-back events in more than a year.
At both the Quail Hollow Championship and The Players Championship, Woods was unable to mount any kind of Sunday afternoon charge despite being well within striking distance of the leaders. On both occasions it was his extremely erratic driver that let him down.
Woods hit just 44 percent of fairways at Quail Hollow and 53 percent at TPC Sawgrass.
With the US Open looming just around the corner, there was perhaps no single golf club in the world spoken about and scrutinized more than Tiger Woods’ driver over the past three weeks.
But rest assured golf world, Tiger Woods came to play today at The Memorial Tournament, and he brought an exceptionally accurate driver with him.
Woods his 13 out of 14 fairways en route to a three-under-par opening round of 69 this afternoon.
Following his struggles off the tee at his last two events Woods decided to change from a 9.5 lofted driver to a 10 degree loft for The Memorial.
Although Woods did hit a number of three woods and irons off the tee today, he didn’t miss a fairway all day with a driver in his hand.
“The swing is starting to come around,” he said. “I’m starting to feel good now. It’s been a long time. I’m starting to get my power back. Everything is starting to come around now.” Woods said following his round at Muirfield Village.
Woods’ only missed fairway of the day came at the par-four 18th, where he pushed a three-wood into one of the bunkers lining the right-side which eventually led to a bogey.
Woods’ driver was not the only club working for him this afternoon. He also hit 72 percent of greens in regulation, which is of course a lot easier to do when you’re hitting from the middle of pristine fairways all day.
Woods’ accuracy off the tee may have been the story of the day, but there were still eight players who scored better than him in the opening round.
Luke Donald played a near flawless round of golf this morning, which included nine birdies and just one bogey on his card.
Donald recorded six birdies in a row between the 8th and 13th holes, and followed with two more birdies at the 15th and 16th en-route to an eight-under-par round of 64.
“It was just kind of a normal everyday round until I got to the eighth and made a nice putt from the fringe from about 15 feet there. That kind of sparked off a run of six birdies. Just really got on a hot streak. What was I, eight under through 10 holes—no, nine holes. Eight under through nine holes. That doesn’t happen very often, but when you get on that roll, it feels pretty good. So just kept going and made some birdies,” Donald said of his opening round.
Jim Furyk, Ted Purdy, Jason Day, and Thomas Aiken are all tied for second and three strokes behind Donald.
Woods is currently tied for ninth with nine other players all at three-under-par.
But remember, Woods also hit 70 percent of fairways during his first round at The Players Championship but never managed to hit more than 50 percent in any of his next three rounds.
So although Woods is off to a hot start, whether or not he can remain accurate off the tee for the remainder of the week will be the big question.