Tiger settles four shots behind the lead at JBWere Australian Masters
Tiger Woods smashed a 2-under 69 in the first round of the JBWere Australian Masters, which kicked off in Victoria, Australia on Thursday.
The defending champion is adamant that he won’t let the title slip away this time. Tiger Woods won the JBWere Australian Masters last year against Stuart Appleby with the help of two strokes. However, this season, the situation has been different. The former
world number one lost all his titles, including the top spot in the World ranking.
However, to end his career’s turmoil Tiger Woods opened with a great defence and fired a score, which made him stand four shots behind the clubhouse leaders. The 34-year old seized the 16th spot on the leader board with fourteen players standing
between him and the leaders, Alistair Presnell and Adam Bland.
His defence could have been stronger, if Woods had not dropped a shot at the par-4, 12thhole. Woods took a prefect straight tee shot and reached the first fairway. He aimed his second shot, but it missed the second fairway, hence Woods had to
hit irons to make his way to the green. Once again, the same old putting problem broke the threshold and the defending champion missed the first birdie putt of the day.
Quite eminently, the player had been facing trouble with the fairways and the putting surface. He failed to spot a fairway with a driver on the last hole of Victoria Golf Club, which enforced him to fling out a shot through the trees. Second time he got
himself stuck in the sand bunker, when he fired a shot and it rolled into the hazard. However, Woods grounded a 3-wood on the white sand and managed to reach the par-4 8th in four shots.
The man of the hour wrapped the front nine with a score of two-under, helped by 33 putts and two birdies.
Woods teed off from the back nine and bogeyed the second hole of the layout. This was the first blow to his confidence, but despite that he did not give up and countered it off with a magnificent shot at the 17th. The cut made with the driver
at the par-5 turned the tournament upside down. The ball flew across 254 yards and fell a few inches away from the green. Tiger 2-ironed the next shot to make an eagle, but the ball stopped a few inches away from the pin, which resulted in a birdie.
Commenting on his shot Tiger said, "I hit the ball well all day. It was just a matter of getting committed to hit the ball a little harder on my putts. I was in all the right spots. But they're really slow up the hill and really quick going down, and I didn't
make the adjustment".
He further added that he was satisfied with the score as it was the lowest he could attain. Although, low scoring was not difficult for him, he missed two fairways and equal greens that pushed him below the leaders.
Alistair Presnell and Adam Bland stroked a 6-under 65 each to take the top spot, whereas, Geoff Ogilvy, who is the betting favourite for the event, started with a score of 72.
Tiger Woods seldom used a driver on the par-72 course. In fact, he made use of the 2-iron and 3-wood to secure a modest finish. This was identical to the strategy he used in 2009 Australian Masters, when he claimed his 82nd title and seventh victory
of the year.
However, this year he has been winless and if he fails to end this drought then for the very first time in 14 years Tiger Woods will step into the next year empty handed. Tiger does not want that. Therefore, he will put his utmost effort in these four days
to change his luck.
Tags: