Rory McIlroy hardly needed reminding that Tiger Woods creates a din wherever he goes. But after watching the 14-time major winner turn mediocrity into a satisfactory 72 in the first round of the Genesis Open, McIlroy remained convinced his friend “will make some noise this year”.
McIlroy told Telegraph Sport that following the evidence of his November knockabout with Woods, he felt the 42-year-old could “stun the world again” when he returned from his spinal fusion operation. And although Woods’ one-over beginning here at Riviera was error-strewn off the tee, McIlroy has not altered his view.
It was their first competitive outing in three years and McIlroy’s mind inevitably drafted back. “It doesn’t feel like five years ago that Tiger won five tournaments and was the voted player of the year, so it’s not been that long,” McIlroy said after his own 71.
“He remembers how to do this and his body’s allowing him to do this once more, and there’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll make some noise this year.”
Certainly there was a clatter on the par-four 11th (Woods’ second hole having started on the 10th) when he sent his drive hurtling into the trees. Indeed, it unluckily stayed up in the eucalyptus, and as Woods could not identify it among the branches, he was forced to go back to the tee-box.
Again it went askew but this time it located terra firma. From the rough, Woods proceeded to swing so aggressively and with such a manic twist of his torso to gain the required action on the ball that if his surgeon was watching he would surely have choked on his grits.
He ended up taking a double bogey, but if nothing else, Woods proved that there is no issue with his mended back’s capability of coping with the rigours of the sport.
However, he plainly has an issue with the big club. His driving marred his commendable showing at Torrey Pines three weeks ago – where he made the cut in his first full-field event in more than a year – and, although he straightened up considerably, it was again the main culprit.
His final hole (the ninth) summed it up when he wildly struck into the bunker on the adjacent 10th, before a brilliant recovery approach to the fringe of a green and a fine up-and-down. The damning stats chart showed he hit only seven greens in regulation.
“It was all right. I made really silly bogeys out there,” Woods said. “But overall I thought I hung in there well and grinded.”
The other member of the Hollywood threeball, which attracted impressive crowds for a Thursday morning, lent some realism to the Woods scenario. “He’s a pretty good ways away,” Justin Thomas said after his 69. “I mean Tiger’s right now doing what he’s always done in terms of getting it around. But he’s obviously not driving it well and not hitting the shots he wants.”
For his part, McIlroy’s putting looked almost as lousy as Woods’s driving early on. But then came the 30-footer for eagle on the first (his 10th) and he was rightly content with coming home in two-under.
Yet still, following his missed cut at Pebble Beach last week, where he took 38 putts his second round, this was largely another humbling day on the greens. But McIlroy refused to be despondent.
“I’ve hit good putts out there,’ McIlroy said. “It’s not as if I’m hitting wide and missing by a few inches – it’s only just sliding by the edges. So it’s not too far off.”
And McIlroy is not too far off the lead held by Americans Tony Finau and Patrick Cantlay. Scotland’s Martin Laird is two behind after a 68, while England’s Tommy Fleetwood shot a 70. World No 1 Dustin Johnson, who is the defending champion here, fired a disappointing 74.
